What if you want to go home, but there is no home to go to?
The definition of home as both location and state of mind for immigrants living in the U.S. is the central theme of SRJC Theater Arts Department’s new production “Anon(ymous)” written by Naomi Iizuka and directed by Liera V. Satlof.
The play follows Anon, a young immigrant fleeing an unnamed war and searching the mother he lost during their escape. Loosely based on Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Anon is helped by both divine and human figures to heal his fragmented memories and reconcile them with his current life in the U.S. as he searches for his mother.
The play begins with single voices declaring their origins and slowly overlapping to form a cacophony of voices speaking different words, but representing the same experience of coming to the U.S. There were many times the production effectively blurred the line between the single narrative of Anon and the narratives of the many anonymous immigrants he represents.
Michael Romero was engaging as Anon, and his recounting of Anon’s past and memories was powerful, but at times it was unclear whether Anon was an active participant of his journey or whether the character was passively being pulled from place to place. Anakarina Sánchez was delightfully playful as Naja, Anon’s divine sometime-companion, and Hien Ngo Tam was tender and sang beautifully as Anon’s mother, Nemasani. Dana Hunt was devilish as Nemasani’s overbearing boss and would-be suitor and Rosie Frater was genuinely creepy as the murderous cyclopic sausage maker. Still, at times it felt that some of the actors needed a little more time to settle into their roles to really capitalize on the emotions playing on stage, something further performances could easily fix.
Set design and lighting were excellent and complimented by the interestingly subverted role of the Greek chorus. Instead of their traditional role of vocally describing actions, they became active, silent parts of the scenery. Chorus members, wearing traditional costumes, used pieces of fabric to create ocean waves and projector screens.
Sound design was especially effective, often adding context and localizing the minimal set design. The steady drip of water during a scene in the subway brought an excellent sense of realism and location to the scene.
The pacing was nice, but the butcher scene dragged a little bit in the middle and seemed oddly violent at the end.
One of the most effective scenes involved Anon and companion Pascal (Mulu Legasse) discussing memories of home and family. Pascal and Anon come from different cultural backgrounds and experiences, but the taste of home cooking or a familiar smell is universal to both. Each remembers a different kind of home, but the feeling of home is identical and easily recognizable.
The only sour note was the often heavy-handed treatment of the non-immigrant characters. While the acting was good, the characters amounted to one-dimensional symbols of white privilege and cultural homogenization. Covering the senator’s jacket with sponsor logos and filling his breast pocket with a fan of bills was funny, but not subtle.
Naja, Anon’s divine companion, says to begin in the middle, at the crossing. Like “The Odyssey,” the journey is where one begins to understand and recognize oneself as a product of both “before” and “after,” the home that no longer exists and the home that one has to remake through family and friends.