I wasn’t bored by this play for a moment. Milo Cramer’s Cute Activist is nothing short of a theater masterpiece. It may be seen this weekend at the quintessential hipstery Bushwick Starr playhouse.
Furthermore, Madeline Wise is worth watching, a driven workaholic and tragic millennial hero whom society has made utterly purposeless. Ms. Wise must be credited with one of the strongest performances recently on stage. She is nothing less than formidable as the incurably very, very no-nonsense Jen Trification.
The time is present day and the opening scene features Jen and Gil (Ronald Peet) on an awkward date, extraordinary for its ambivalence. One seems to be yearning for the dedication to social change of a 16th-century Jesuit missionary; the other, a puny handsome louse, seeks a professionally mega successful and incredibly beautiful partner so that he can live off the grid all the while looking after the kids.
At the height of the play, an inevitable showdown leads Jen to learn that her architecture firm’s commercial interests will demolish a haunt for cheeseball-clichéd activist zealots. Jen attends one of their meetings and is not happy with the smarmy and self-obsessed arm-chairpersons. It’s a meeting that others may count as a failure, ideologues talking in platitudes, and yet something dramatic is on the verge of taking place. It’s not all for naught.
The theme of asexuality in modern-day Protestant society must be taken seriously in Cute Activist. Jen, suffering from excessive careerism at 26, wants to fill an emotional intimacy void by attaching herself to something that’s flashy and worth fighting for. There are so many men and women in New York with activism lacking utterly. What draws Jen to find causes is born out of a desire to no longer be a symbolic sex object for the randy Gil’s of the world. She has more to offer than her body.
To be sure, the dialogue is vivid and the entire supporting cast’s performance is exquisite.
Finally, and most fortunately, there are extremely charming puppets. Hope you’re lucky enough to catch Cute Activist.
A Cute Activist is running tonight and tomorrow night, Feb. 3 at the The Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street, Brooklyn. Price of admission: $30. For more info visit thebushwickstarr.org.
