'Misamerica' travels all-too-familiar ground

There's nothing subtle about "Misamerica," Tom Patrick's over-the-top satire on the effects of American intervention, unfettered capitalism and cultural ignorance on an unnamed Middle Eastern country (read Iraq) roughly transitioning from dictatorship to something resembling a democracy.

And there's nothing in Patrick's unabashed, broadly drawn critique of U.S. response to and exploitation of Middle East turmoil that we haven't seen before. ("Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates," Robert Schenkkan's indictment of American imperialism which had its Midwest premiere at Infamous Commonwealth Theatre last year, addressed similar issues.)

The plot, which centers on an ambitious American shoe company's attempts to corner the Middle East sandal market, is formulaic and its outcome predictable. The characters - self-serving, self-involved, culturally insensitive capitalists - are stereotypes. Patrick tends to repeat himself. And the play, making its world premiere this week at Raven Theatre following a workshop production at Stage Left Theatre's LeapFest 2006, gets a bit preachy. The script needs some tweaking. The change of heart one of the characters experiences late in the play doesn't feel justified, and another character comes across as a bit ill-defined, as if Patrick hasn't quite decided whether to make him the play's subversive social conscience or a self-interested sellout.

That said, the play is funny, in a gleefully chaotic, take-no-prisoners kind of way.

It opens on a golf course, where the head of a marketing firm and a shoe company executive agree to team up to exploit an emerging market in a newly "liberated" country. Charged with coordinating the marketing, resourceful project manager Gina (Kimberly Logan) hires Walter (Des Plaines native Greg Caldwell), a dyspeptic adman preoccupied with acid reflux disease, to create the advertising campaign shameless in its political incorrectness. Accompanied by golf-loving corporate honcho Dale (Wheeling's Steve Ratcliff), Walter and Gina head to the Middle East to establish their "beachhead" and plan their "invasion." They get into trouble when their ignorance and arrogance insult their target market and ignite an insurrection led by Rahim (Nate Storm), an initially obliging local whose tolerance is tested by the Americans' ugly behavior. Caught up in the resulting chaos is relief worker Becky (Lindley Gibbs Wisnewski), who delivers aid but demands conversion in return, and liaison Khalilah (Suzan Faycurry), an Arab eager to buy what America sells.

Director Greg Kolack (the Downers Grove resident who also directed Raven's "columbinus," one of the best shows of 2008) delivers a fleet, fierce production underscored by bracing shots of rock 'n' roll courtesy of Mike Tutaj, who incorporates Rage Against the Machine, The Beastie Boys and Middle Eastern pop into his sound design.