One element I liked about this production, which is much easier to glean after Women’s Lib, is the misogyny built into 1960s revolutionary politics. Even in a movement that was supposed to break free from bourgeois society, ’60s rebellion was largely a bunch of guys screaming and drawing attention to themselves. Teddy’s tag-along girlfriend Cheryl (Casandera M. J. Lollar) most likely admired the older hippies in her youth, but probably didn’t ever expect Peace and Love to end with her holding an innocent diner hostage at gunpoint. The play ends with overweight waitress Angel, the only character who even 40 years later has yet to find a niche in American society, weeping by herself.
While this production may embellish the kitschy side of When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?, the play itself is vital to any transitional period of youthful rebellion. Today, when the blind faith American hipsters put in Obama—after years of relative apathy—is inevitably proving to be too little, too late, the play is a particularly chilling warning against quick-fix rebellion.
Just imagine this scenario: a guy with a grunge look (flannel shirt, wide-cut jeans, an unkempt haircut and shave, teeth that haven’t been brushed for weeks), walks into any barista coffee shop in Williamsburg, Northhampton, Wicker Park, or Austin. In the ’90s, like Red in the ’50s, this Kurt Cobain lookalike would be the new, living, breathing spirit of rebellion. But surrounded by the tight-jeaned, manufactured scruff and indoor sunglasses of today’s young intelligentsia, he’d be out of place, a “poseur,” just as Red’s slicked-back ’50s hairstyle made him look to Teddy’s shaggy Vietnam vet like a “fag.” Sometimes being intentionally outdated, rather than existing for camp, can align you with Stoppard’s Unbribables. While Retro Productions’ When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? may not fully realize this, the play itself does.
Retro Productions presentsWHEN YOU COMIN’ BACK, RED RYDER?By Mark MedoffDirected by Ric SechrestMay 7th – 23rdSpoon Theater (38 West 38th St.,5th Floor), Tickets $18
Article comments
1 - Theatre Goer
I saw the play last night. Mr. Stanislawski, as my Uncle Carl would say your review, "is more full of shit than a cranberry merchant."
2 - Anonamous
Stanislawski sat next to me and I rarely saw him lift his head to watch this play ... he made notes throughout the entire time he sat there. This guy is full of himself ... and should not be allowed in anybodies theatre!!!!!