The Walk Across America for Mother Earth

Taylor Mac was responsible for one of my favorite ever nights in a theater. A year or so ago, he put on a show called The Lily's Revenge that told the story of a flower who fell in love with a real girl and wanted to marry her. It was four and a half hours long. I know, it already sounds amazing, right? Here's the thing: it was five acts told in different styles (film, dance, theater in the round) with the theatrical space completely rearranged and redefined throughout the night, and the intermissions which ranged from 30-45 minutes were filled with dancing, face painting, open dressing rooms, blow-up punching dolls, ukulele strummers in the bathroom, and (most importantly) a request that everyone leave their cell phones off for the duration of the show and actually, y'know...interact. With a cast of 30+ performers, it wasn't as much a play as it was a carnival, a celebration, and an investigation into how we build communities. Some of the performances were amateurish, sets were chintzy, and certain sections bordered on silly, but taken as a whole, it was one of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever had. Flash forward to last night. Taylor has a new show: The Walk across America for Mother Earth playing as part of the Under the Radar Festival. Opening night, front row, ready to go, you couldn't have slapped the smile off my face.

I'll be honest: my expectations were unreasonable and unfairly high. When you anticipate perfect, great can still disappoint. And at intermission, I was impressed but not blown away. The show is about a group of activists who decided to literally walk across America in 1992, from New York to a nuclear test site in Nevada, to protest nuclear testing. The costumes were outrageous, the makeup was insane, and it was fabulous to look at, but it left me a little cold.

I should have kept the faith. The show didn't just come together in the second act. It bowled me over. Using this exceptionally heightened theatricality to show off a bunch of misfits, punks, queers, and crazies, the play ultimately was an incisive and challenging look at how communities can fail to unite, how activists can fail so spectacularly that they actually harm the cause, and then, ultimately, how beautiful the human spirit is that people are ever inspired enough to even try.

There are incredible moments throughout--a vicious flower child named (sigh) Flower pondering how hard it is to join a group of outsiders and still not fit in, a woman dying from cancer hijacking every group vote by exploiting her illness to get her way, a mental patient who believes another group member raped him...in a former life, and the moment when innoncent, wonderful Taylor himself breaks down and finds that this event he joined to enrich the world is making him hate people. Confronted with the news of a town in Utah downwind from a nuclear site which has ended up having the highest rate of cancer in the country, our heretofore idealistic teenager finally snaps with a devastating (and devastatingly funny), "Fucking MOVE!"

Ultimately, it's just a beautiful look at one sweet, sweet idealist growing up and learning that no one is perfect, but when people do genuinely try, it can be a beautiful thing.

And, of course, at intermission, there were henna tattoos, free popcorn, a talent show, and the chance to take pictures with protest signs inspired by the show. We missed the chance to get the official ones where they screen in a background behind you, so here's a quick cell phone pic on the way out.