Two American filmmakers venture into Mexico to document Coca-Cola's actions in an effort to promote understanding and social justice. The premise of "The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico," the latest comedy at GALA Theatre, sounds familiar. We have seen this film - or something like it.
Told in short and hilarious scenes, however, the GALA production finds new complexity in the movement of documentary film as a progressive political tool. The audience watches a play about viewing a culture, and as the curtain falls you realize that, despite the title, this play isn't about Coca-Cola. It's about the foreign gaze and the capacity of Western activists to create change abroad. It's about you.
Written by Aldo Velasco, a Mexican playwright and filmmaker, and Patrick Scott, "True History" follows two American filmmakers as they set out to create a documentary film about Coca-Cola's actions in Mexico. There are only two actors in the show, and they play both the central filmmakers and the characters with whom they interact. Fast-moving scenes depict the filmmakers' journey with energy and hilarity, careening from fumble to mishap. The play feels like a series of vignettes, like film stills strung together to create a profound whole out of a collection of impressions.
Amid a red and white pop art background, the story seems simply told. There are few special effects or props or costume changes. True of really good comedy, biting satire weaves together the show: This production is deceptively complex and incredibly compelling. This is supposed to be a story about the pervasiveness of multi-national corporations and the destruction of traditional ways of life.
But watching the filmmakers interact with the local culture, the audience soon forgets about Coca-Cola. The ubiquitous soda certainly appears, but serves only to punctuate the cultural blunders of the cinéastes like a drum roll at the end of a good joke.
For example, in one particularly hilarious scene, one of the filmmakers drinks the local water to purposefully make himself sick and get the medicine man on film. At the end of the medicine man's over-dramatic and stereotypical ritual, he pulls out a bottle of Coke for the last step of the healing process. Ironic, too, is that Coca-Cola is often used in indigenous Mexican healing rites, as it has replaced homemade concoctions over the years because of its ease.
D.C. actors Jaime Robert Carrillo and Daniel Eichner coax to life the subversive humor that gives the play its bite. Their rapid-fire transition of characters lends the production its rollicking hilarity, as well as an improvisational quality that works well with the organic process of filming a documentary. It's hard not to laugh, for example, when the filmmakers re-enact a famous Mexican soap opera.
Telling the story with only two actors allows the play's deeper themes to emerge. It vividly shows how the filmmaker sees himself in his subjects. It depicts how difficult it is to escape yourself - and all your prejudices and preconceptions - in interacting with a local culture.
The exploitation of Coca-Cola is a premise that puts into question the role of foreign artists. Unexpected and hilarious to its end, "True History" depicts two filmmakers too preoccupied with their vision to truly see.
"The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico" runs through April 26 at GALA Theatre in Columbia Heights. For student tickets and more production information, visit www.galatheatre.org.
You can reach this staff writer at agoldstein@theeagleonline.com.
