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Chicago Tribune
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: In world premiere ‘Neighborhood Watch' at Jackalope Theatre, an uneasy time in suburbia
What happens when a Muslim man moves into a predominantly white, politically divided suburb a month after the 2024 election? In Rehana Lew Mirza's new play, 'Neighborhood Watch,' it means that the white-haired NPR listener who still wears Bernie 2016 and Clinton-Gore '92 T-shirts starts acting pretty weird. This world premiere, directed by Kaiser Ahmed for Jackalope Theatre, is the latest play to skewer the hypocrisies of white liberals — a genre most recently seen on Chicago stages in Larissa FastHorse's satire of progressive theater-makers, 'The Thanksgiving Play,' and Omer Abbas Salem's tense academic drama, 'One Party Consent.' Mirza's new work can best be categorized as a dramedy, though the comedic elements come off more successfully than the domestic drama at its core. In the first scene, we meet Paul (Frank Nall), a widower and single father to Becca (Jamie Herb), a recent college graduate who's moved back into her dad's Virginia home while she searches for a job. When Mo (Harsh Gagoomal), a handsome man around Becca's age, moves into the house next door, sparks fly between the two young people while Paul's liberal values are put to the test. Mirza's script serves up plenty of situational humor in the first act, which is full of cross-cultural misunderstandings and awkward gaffes. When Paul brings a house-warming gift to the new neighbor, the older man seemingly can't open his mouth without making a cringeworthy remark, despite his intention to be welcoming. At one point, he says he's glad that Mo has moved in, since the neighborhood was getting a little too white. Meanwhile, Mo amuses himself by winding up his new neighbor, intentionally playing into white stereotypes about Muslim men. It's pretty light-hearted fun until Mo and Becca start dating, at which point Paul's protective instincts kick in as he listens to the Iago-like whisperings of his middle-aged MAGA neighbor, who has a creepy crush on Becca and a shady business as a private investigator. Shawn, a campy character played by Victor Holstein, soon convinces Paul to hire him to spy on the young couple. Halfway through the play, Mo's past catches up with him with the appearance of a fifth character, Javed (Omar Bader), a cousin who grew up with Mo before serving a prison sentence for electronic terrorism — a juvenile offense of posting extremist videos and making threats online. As Becca gets to know both of the cousins better, Paul's paranoia grows, and his surveillance tactics quickly escalate. While the comedy works well in Act 1, the relationships between most of the characters aren't developed enough for the drama that unfolds in the second act to make much of an impact. Herb and Gagoomal have strong chemistry as Becca and Mo, but the play's father-daughter relationship is less convincing. Paul's motivations come across as overly simplistic, and it seems far-fetched that he would so easily put his trust in Shawn at the expense of his daughter's privacy. The belated introduction of Javed makes his storyline feel rushed, while the overall pacing lags in the second act, which is a letdown after the explosive setup just before intermission. Mirza seems interested in complicating stereotypes about suburban polarization but only offers a surface-level exploration of these themes. First, there's the unlikely alliance between Paul and Shawn, which pokes at the so-called horseshoe theory — the idea that far-left and far-right ideologues are more alike than different, circling around to meet at a similar point. On the other hand, Paul also discovers that he has more in common with Mo than it first seemed, a realization that doesn't reflect well on either of them by the end of the play. Although these ideas and characters would benefit from further development, 'Neighborhood Watch' is already a lot of fun in its current form. This is likely the first fully staged production that you'll see featuring Harris-Walz yard signs (set design by Tianxuan Chen), and Mirza also works in a reference to Luigi Mangione. All that to say: the play is topical, and perhaps rushed to the stage too quickly, but it's a good time — even for well-meaning white liberals who may find themselves the punchline of a few 'Neighborhood Watch' (2.5 stars) When: Through June 28 Where: Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway St. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes Tickets: $15-$40 at
New York Times
24-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
In a Sea of Political Change, Bernie Sanders Keeps Truckin'
To witness one of Bernie Sanders's Fighting Oligarchy tour stops, which rolled through Nevada, Colorado and Arizona this weekend, is to stumble through time. It's 2025, but when Mr. Sanders, the senior senator from Vermont, delivers lines, in his still-intact Brooklyn drawl, about 'millionaires and billionaires' and the 1 percent keeping the working class underfoot, it could be 2015, or 2005. Even further back than that, perhaps. It is not merely Mr. Sanders's speech. At 83, his image is unmoving — even if his hairline sits a bit further back than it used to. He wears, as he has for years, wire frames no fancier than the ones you'd find in the drugstore checkout line, unremarkable navy suits and cornflower blue dress shirts. His younger sparring partners in the Democratic Party — Barack Obama, Pete Buttigieg, Gavin Newsom, among them — long ago shed their sport coats to stump in shirt sleeves. Not Bernie. Like an aging accountant, his blazer stays on. The out-of-time feeling extends beyond the stage at the Fighting Oligarchy tour. The crowds that fill these whistle stops (which Mr. Sanders has said are the among the largest of his political career) wear 'Bernie 2016' T-shirts and 'Bernie 2020' caps — dusted off keepsakes of Mr. Sanders's prior presidential runs, but also reminders that he has been a Democratic bridesmaid for longer than some in his crowd have been able to vote. The swelling masses Mr. Sanders is drawing in states that often went for Donald J. Trump in the last election reflect how a cohort of Democrats are once again turning to Mr. Sanders as the broader party seems incapable of chipping away at President Trump's authority. (Though he's previously run to be the Democratic presidential candidate, Mr. Sanders is an independent and has lately pushed others to follow him. Still, Mr. Sanders's enduring appeal to left-leaning Democrats, in terms of outright fandom, can feel similar to Mr. Trump's hold over Republicans.) The political sands have shifted since Mr. Sanders last made a run at the presidency. Around a decade ago, could anyone pick out Pete Hegseth, let alone his tattoos? Back then, Elon Musk was an electric-car entrepreneur, not the government's cost cutter in chief. Paul Ryan was speaker of the House in 2016 — remember him? But Mr. Sanders, with his eat-the-rich message, is a constant. And today, while Democrats on the Hill squabble over budget votes and polls show their appeal sinking with voters, the same-as-he-ever-was Mr. Sanders is barnstorming the country along with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman from New York, drawing crowds as if they were The Grateful Dead, or their successors, Dead & Company. Indeed, the Vermont independent is, in so many ways, the Grateful Dead of American politics. Like the Dead, he has a steadfast fan base — both groups are now often as white-haired as he is — that hangs on every new interpolation of an old hit. (Mr. Sanders's working shots at Mr. Musk into his speech is his version of the Dead retooling 'Casey Jones.') And he also continues to find purchase with a younger generation, drawn into his anti-corporate messaging, which continues to echo the youth-centric Occupy Wall Street movement of the aughts. On the Fighting Oligarchy tour, it could be said that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, in her tucked white shirts and leopard-print flats, is playing a similar role to John Mayer's, who started touring with Dead & Company in recent years — an acolyte with her own sizable fan base, adding a jolt to the proceedings. And the crowds: Like Deadheads, Bernie's true believers love the merch. Today, you can buy 'Bernie was Right' tees, shirts that style a photo of a young Mr. Sanders bordered by the phrase 'Rage Against the Machine' and tees praising the irascible statesman in Spanish as 'Tío Bernie.' Mr. Sanders's site continues to sell what it has deemed the 'Bernie Classic Logo' tees, with his name in the recognizable font that he has used since at least his 2016 presidential run. Those run $27. While the camo 'Harris Walz' hats that were coveted during Kamala Harris's recent presidential run are a scarcity, Bernie hats were visible at his rally in Colorado, as were shirts with his name and buttons depicting his trademark glasses and flecked white hair — reflections of how the aging politician maintains a pop cultural cool that has recently eluded Democratic politicians. How far that can take him (or for that matter, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who draws her own A.O.C.-teed supporters) is an open question. After all, the Grateful Dead is still considered a cult band.
