We know we are in the middle of summer when we get the notification for a San Francisco Mime Troupe show. We look forward to it every summer. We were extra excited to find out that they are celebrating their 58th season with a show musical about immigration called “Walls”. So we packed our picnic basket full of treats and canned wine, and headed off to McLaren Park for some drama talk and drinks.
l-r) Velina Brown (L. Mary Jones), Marilet Martinez (Zaniyah Nahuatl)
Photo by: Mike@mikemelnyk.com
Brittany: What a beautiful day! It’s always nice to see a show outside in a park.
Katie: Yeah, the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater is awesome! Can’t believe I have never been there. Such a great location for this. But for me, the location was one of my favorite parts about it. This one wasn’t quite as inventive and creative as I remember their other shows being. I found myself not super interested in what was going to happen next, because it seemed too obvious and predictable.
B: The last Mime Troupe show we saw was just before the election, and it felt really urgent. It made me feel like “we’re gonna fight, we’re speaking truth to power”! I didn’t feel that after this show. I kind of just felt sad. The final message seemed to be “our immigration system is a terrible mess, but the best thing we can do is help escort undocumented immigrants to their ICE trials”. I did appreciate that they included sound bites not just of Trump, but also of Obama, both Bushes and Clinton showing how long our immigration system has been broken. It’s important to acknowledge this is a huge and longstanding problem, I just wish there was more of a call to action. Although this play pissed off Breitbart News, so that’s worth something!
The Verdict: Any weekend spent sitting in a park, sipping wine, and watching free theater is a weekend well spent. Expect to be entertained but don’t expect to leave inspired to make a change.
The Drama Talk: Not the most inspired show we’ve seen done by SF Mime Troupe. The premise of Walls sounds compelling (an undocumented lesbian immigrant living in hiding with her ICE agent partner) but the script is pretty predictable and not nearly as boundary pushing as other SF Mime Troupe shows we’ve seen in the past. The SF Mime Troupe company is consistently talented, and does a good job playing multiple roles and keeping the show moving. While some of the actors have great voices, none of the songs are really memorable. It’s a free show and it’s in a park, so if it’s a nice day it’s worth going. Unfortunately, despite Breitbart’s outrage, we don’t think this show will actually spark any leftist revolutions.
The Drinks: These shows are mostly in parks and we recommend bringing drinks with you. We brought Underwood canned wine from Trader Joe’s. Super classy.
Walls is running through September 10th at various locations. Tickets are free. You can check out locations for their upcoming shows on their website.