Review: Fake It Until You Make It Doesn’t Quite Meet Its Farcical Aspirations

Cultural appropriation and the delegitimizing of an entire culture are timely topics. Center Theatre Group’s production of Larissa FastHorse’s world premiere play Fake It Until You Make It takes on these and other issues in what could have been a stinging satire. Unfortunately, the play confuses its themes and lacks the humor that might have redeemed it.

Wynona (Tonantzin Carmelo) runs an environmental protection group and despises cis white female River (Julie Bowen) because she has insinuated herself into a Native American charity. Becoming entangled in their rivalry are Krys (Brandon Delsid), leader of a Two-Sprit movement, and Grace (Dakota Ray Hebert), who appears to change her race in each scene. When both Wynona and River qualify for a new grant, Wynona hatches a plan with her white boyfriend Theo (Noah Bean) to expose River as a fraud. Hilarity ensues, at least sometimes.

Los Angeles audiences can compare this farcical work with Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, now running at the Geffen Playhouse. FastHorse’s play uses similar elements of farce: slamming doors, mistaken identity, a feisty cat that sparks the play’s action.

But the writing is sloppy. Sophomoric sexual innuendos flood the dialogue—a charity named N.O.B.U.S.H and a cat named Pusíla are only the tip of the iceberg. The biggest issue is the audience has no one in whom to invest.  A play full of antiheroes is not antithetical to comedy by any means, but these characters are so unpleasant that the audience quickly loses interest.

Director Michael John Garcés fails to ground the farce in reality, never permitting the audience to recognize themselves in any character. All the pratfalls, insults, and nasty tricks never build, with everyone starting off at a 10. That makes for 90 exhausting minutes.

Carmelo and Bowen require the most modulation. Carmelo shouts almost every line, with jittery contempt, while Bowen comes off as bland. Bean is a calming presence, but he’s like a robot that elicits no empathy. Delsid, as the randy young activist, gets most of the laughs. Hebert also adds humor as the daffy, committed lawyer who wants to end racism in an “innovative” way.

Sara Ryung Clement’s set evokes exactly what one would see at an organization funded by grants. She creates two floors with moving offices to keep the farce on track. E.B. Brooks’s casual costumes borrow bright turquoises, oranges, and neon pinks to set the scene at an indigenous collective.

Fake It Until You Make is bursting with ideas, some intentionally ridiculous, that could have evolved into a provocative play.  But in its present form, Fake It just doesn’t make it.