The story follows a young city boy to a rural Alaskan Village to live with his Tlingit grandparents. They Don't Talk Back is a different kind of performance, more of play interspersed with poetic and hip-hop monologues which serve to get us inside the characters. They Don't Talk Back is a humorous clash of cultures, coupled with a love story which touches society's lack of humanity in dealing with vets who return from war. The result is a thoughtful and insightful performance that sticks with you.
I would see it again. I am at home with those cultures and I found great similarities with those presented in this play. My friend who is from England had a more difficult time wrapping her head around the production. She enjoyed the traditional aspects the best where I enjoyed the poetic interludes the best. The performance starts with Duane Minard speaking in Tlinget language poem about his love for his wife.
It was quite beautiful and moving. And then we follow him into the scene. Jennifer Bobiwash plays the part of Linda. She speaks in that hesitating way that our native mothers speak when translating in their heads to the English. Immediately I felt right at home whereas my English friend thought it was poor acting. Afterwards we had a wonderful conversation about Shakespeare and how an "outsider" might view a traditional Shakespearian performance verses how she saw this one.
Both are rather stylistic in presentation. The story unfolds in a rather organic way-much as if it's being told. I was brought into the story and came to care about the characters they portrayed. Duane Minard plays Paul, husband of Linda. He is stern and knows his way. Kholan Studi plays Edward, grandson of Linda and Paul who lives with them. A sensitive performance gives insight to being comfortable where you are without explanation to counter.
Roman Zaragoza plays Nick the "apple" Red on the outside-white on the inside grandson who comes from the city to live with them. He can't understand the why of his grandparents and cousin but comes to miss what they have as he leaves to rejoin his own family.
