Nikkole Salter’s world-premiere “Indian Head,” commissioned by West Orange’s Luna Stage Company, is a play with an important message and not a whole lot of nuance.
Flirting precariously with the territory of after-school special, the play seeks to demonstrate the damaging effects of rendering Native American iconography and spirituality as athletic mascot. Salter’s message is as timely as ever: as an NFL team in our nation’s capital persists in its use of a name and traditions grounded in willful bigotry, and after an unambiguously racist mascot emblazoned caps during the World Series, Americans would do well to reassess exploitations of primitivist stereotypes.
The play was inspired by the controversy that ensued at Parsippany High School in 2001, when the school decided to change its mascot name from the Redskins to the Redhawks. Luna’s program for “Indian Head” suggests that there remain 76 schools in New Jersey still using Native American mascots.
But “Indian Head” could use some refinement. It is a play painted in broad, didactic strokes, where characters fit neatly into their types and everybody learns an important lesson in the end. Socially important though the play certainly is, compelling theater it is not.
The racists at the play’s center are the Chipeekany High School Warriors football team. Coach Smith (Donivan Dain Scott) is a proud alum who has returned to coach the squad (regularly referred to as “the tribe”) back to glory behind captain Brian (Ollie Corchado, a cast standout), the team’s star quarterback — nicknamed Chief Long Arm for his deep-ball prowess.
When Rachel (Sydney Battle), a Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape student vandalizes the new scoreboard on the eve of the team’s playoff game, Coach Smith tempers his disgust by cutting a deal with Rachel’s mother Patricia (Carla-Rae) not to press charges. In exchange, Rachel must serve as the team’s equipment manager. Why the coach would want a defiant activist on the sidelines during the playoffs is never entirely clear.
The team’s exploitation of Rachel’s cultural history goes well beyond just their logo and name: Brian does an offensive war dance before each game while fans cry out slogans and chants meant to appropriate Indian pride, nobility, and community. For this team, their mascot is their culture, albeit a culture they understand not at all.
As the play progresses, Rachel makes inroads into opening Brian’s eyes to the bigger picture, but Coach Smith digs in his heels in defense of the team’s traditions. For her part, Patricia, an active member of her people’s cultural outreach program, struggles to take the measured approach .
The moral of this story is a valuable one that people should hear, but in the end “Indian Head” feels more like one of Patricia’s cultural competency workshops than a well-developed play. Long scenes of discussion arrive precisely where we know they are meant to; loose ends in the plot dissipate without resolution; and we are given little chance to explore the depth of any of these characters.
Kareem Fahmy’s direction does not help matters, as he struggles to use the inventively utilitarian set design of Tina Pfefferkorn and Libby Stadstad effectively. With the audience on three sides of the rectangular playing space, sight lines often suffer from stagnant bodies that seem too busy delivering homilies to move around much.
Indian Head
Luna Stage Company
555 Valley Road, West Orange
Tickets available by phone: (973) 395-5551. Running through March 5
Patrick Maley may be reached at patrickjmaley@gmail.com. Find him on Twitter @PatrickJMaley. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook.
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