Amid a mountain of fake grass and spindly trees, the cast of “”Red State Blue Grass”” ponders the meaning of life. How and where does someone thrive without capitalism? The commendably hilarious play, written by Josh Tobiessen, tells the story of five disillusioned Americans moving to Kentucky’s backwoods to start a commune. But what the play really tackles is the modern conveniences that people demand wherever they go: Tobiessen pokes fun at a blog generation obsessed with making its actions “”internationally”” known and staying connected to an ultimately deceptive web. Imagine lugging a sofa way into the wilderness, and you’ve got a pretty good idea what he’s going for.
The five campers are drawn together after an idealistic Web site beckons them from mundane life. The embittered bunch arrives in the wilderness, ready to follow the adorable Claire (Liz Elkins) in her optimistic dream of a country in which every last necessity can be paid with a handmade basket. Unfortunately for Claire, no one else shares the same desire to get down and crafty.
Then there’s the curiously huge crop of marijuana planted in their midst. The gears turning in each character’s head are almost visible as they weigh their fiscal options: Basket or blunt? Capitalistic freedom or big-screen TV? As freshly amusing as Tobiessen makes the question, it also rings with age-old wisdom.
But soon there’s more trouble in paradise, as the uneven ratio of girls to guys sends one very frustrated male into a testosterone-fueled huff. His scuffle sets off a whirlwind of drama that ultimately dooms the scrappy little commune, a comical exploration of stock characters and modern social interactions. Tobiessen places an unlikely crowd of personalities who have no business being friends – let alone roommates – together in an isolated environment and lets them wander wherever they please. The troupe could be the cast of “”Friends,”” if the cast of “”Friends”” sort of wanted to kill each other and smoked pot all day. Imagine a naive hippie united with a sex-obsessed Brooklynite, a nerdy businessman, an apathetic housewife and a scrappy pothead all in the same campsite. Each character, though determined to throw off the shackles of a domineering outside society, ends up returning to his or her vice. Brooklynite Burt (Josh Wade), in a riotous performance, twitches like a junkie when he can’t get any action, and pothead Dwight (Johnny Wu) is almost never seen without his precious toke in a series of well-acted moments of drugged-out reverie.
“”Red State Blue Grass”” is a diagrammed anatomy of human ambition: All the separate lives entering Claire’s perfect, au-natural world end up compromising it for selfish desires. (Everyone means well, but a nightly can of pork and beans is only so satisfying when a small cheater’s shortcut can yield some delectable caviar.) Between its outrageous action and witty dialogue, the play delves into the darker side of American nature and our curious obsession with material things. It’s obvious that a La-Z-Boy in the middle of the forest is ridiculous, but what about doting on an online blog? I guess if you trust a hippie with a Myspace page, you get what you deserve.
“”Red State Blue Grass”” plays April 28 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Mandell Weiss Forum studio. Admission is $8.
