Drama Masks: In no mood for theatrics

This is Drama Masks, a Bay Area performing arts column from a born San Franciscan and longtime theatre artist in an N95 mask. I talk venue safety and dramatic substance, or the lack thereof.

I wound up missing an indie theatre show this past Saturday. It’s a company that I like to support, but I knew two hours before curtain that I wouldn’t make it to the East Bay in time. Partly due to growing public transit woes in SF; partly due to some detours caused by the No Kings protest.

I didn’t attend the protest. I’d gone to the Hands Off! rally in April, but it pissed me off to the point that I refused to attend anything else by the same organizers. Don’t get me wrong: Trump and his ilk are as evil as they are narcissistic. So, knowing they’re having meltdowns over millions of their constituents raising their voices against them is a comforting thought. The problem is that Hands Off! and No Kings aren’t about change, they’re about theatrics.

I’m a bit of an expert on theatrics.

When I showed up at SF City Hall for Hands Off!, the massive turnout was certainly encouraging. What wasn’t was how the organizers took to the stage to chastise the thousands in attendance. They repeatedly shamed us to “not cause violence” and to “not play into the right-wing narrative by showing aggression.” This pissed me off because if these folks were real activists by any definition, they wouldn’t be playing into the bullshit narrative that lefist protestors “just want to riot.”

The organizers were painting us with the same stereotypical brush Fox News uses, despite the fact that any “violence” initiated in such protests is always instigated by the cops—I mean each and every single time. This pre-emptive victim-blaming was the second-most insulting thing I saw that day.

The most insulting was the ever-vomit-inducing face of Scott Wiener. Hands Off! tried to sell itself as a safe event for non-colonial, pro-Palestinian people of color, and the greater proletariat. But when I saw him waiting in the wings to speak, I knew it was time to leave. Wiener is a gentrifier and Zionist who supported the very Elon Musk actions the crowd was supposedly there to protest. I didn’t buy his “Fight the Power” cosplay for one second. I left before the march began.

Sure enough, Wiener was at No Kings this past Saturday. The former city supervisor returned to SF not as a hero, but as the guy who wants to carve up the city like a Christmas ham. Not only that, but he wants us to be grateful for it—so grateful that we give him Pelosi’s old job.

Look, I don’t doubt the sincerity of the thousands gathered, nor that of the magnificent Ms. Angela Davis who took to the stage at SF. But the condescension of the organizers and the embrace of colonizers like Wiener prove that these rallies are more pageantry than policy influence. Take it from a theatre critic: I can tell when people are just reciting lines without knowing what they mean.

I say this as someone who’s spent some of the best days of my Gen X life protesting. Hell, in the past few years alone, I’ve almost been run over by Joe Biden’s presidential motorcade (APEC), stood shoulder-to-shoulder with folks who blocked access to the Bridge, had people toss things at me out of windows, and given statements in front of SF supervisors—to name but a few. If No Kings is the Denny’s of protests, I’m glad to have taken part in the greasy-spoon equivalent.

The co-founder of this very website has already pointed out how our Levi’s-scion mayor was nowhere to be seen at the rally, ducking even the bare minimum. In this column, I’ve joked about how his now-ten-month tenure has primarily consisted of ribbon-cuttings and hand-outs to AI firms. Now we are seeing how he barely pipes up when Trump threatens to send in the National Guard, making everything about “public safety” rather than standing up for the rights of the people who live here. No doubt, that’s because he wants to stay on the good side of his fellow blue bloods. Y’know, like the one behind Dreamforce, the guy who actually wants SF to look like occupied Baghdad, and whose call to Trump apparently caused him to back down from the National Guard plan.

Yet, Lurie’s still not the villain Wiener is—someone who stands centerstage and sucks up all the energy for his own nefarious ambition. (I didn’t pick that label at random; Wiener has actually spent the last few weeks saying he’s fine with being cast as the villain.

People are angry. They’re scared. They’re tired. They’re confused. They’re looking for any reassurance that they’re not alone. That the rallies can help with that, for many, is net good. It still doesn’t change the fact that it’s hashtag activism on a large scale. Theatrical “show-activism” shouldn’t be the end goal. Showing up is a good first step, but it has to be followed by credible action. I’m in no mood to wait around when the Constitution’s being used as septic filter, and the thought of a Puerto Rican headliner at the Super Bowl has people howling for even more fascist laws.

So, even though I missed my show, I wouldn’t have rather gone to No Kings to stand beside the Scott Wieners of the world who lead us into this mess. My convictions would never let me do that. On the plus side: I hear Gay.Shame’s got somethin’ goin’ on for Hallowe’en…