When you think of a farce, you probably think of “Noises Off” by Michael Frayn, “The Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare or any number of other over-the-top dramas that include physical comedy, exaggerated stereotypes and general absurdity. “Fake It Until You Make It” lacks the absurdity, offering a nearly farcical take on the real world of nonprofits and the fight for political correctness. So, is it a farce? No. 

“Fake It Until You Make It” is Los Angeles-based Larissa FastHorse’s newest work, and its world premiere is directed by Michael John Garcés. The show continues a legacy of FastHorse plays centering around Indigenous peoples, a group close to FastHorse as a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe. 

FastHorse is the first Native American playwright to present work at the Mark Taper Forum, which is why it is so unfortunate that the play feels so incomplete — especially given the extra time that FastHorse was supplied in production.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

“Fake It Until You Make It” was supposed to premiere in 2023 but was delayed due to the Taper’s programming pause from July 2023 to Oct. 2024, when “American Idiot” in collaboration with Deaf West Theatre premiered.

Given the extra two years, one would think the show would be exceptional. Alas, 30 minutes into the show, four patrons had already left the theater, their heads hanging. The show’s great folly: It does not know what it is. 

From the very beginning of the play, things just happen. There are no dimming lights to urge patrons to take their seats, and instead EDM music begins blaring — a motif that makes no sense — as the audience is launched into a world where River (Julie Bowen) issues a restraining order against her office neighbor Wynona (Tonantzin Carmelo) on behalf of Bowen’s cat.

This opening, while portrayed slightly too earnestly to feel farcical and written simultaneously too crazy to feel genuine — the jokes and “Moon Over Buffalo” quick entrances and exits fall flat — effectively sets up the two characters’ conflict with one another. 

Carmelo plays Wynona, an Indigenous person who runs an ecological preservation nonprofit called N.O.B.U.S.H., and Bowen plays River, a white woman who runs a competing nonprofit called Indigenous Nations Soaring. 

The central conflict of the play — though that could be debated — is between Carmelo and Bowen as their rivalry leads to a slew of forged identities, general foolishness and chaos.

Already from just looking at these names, characters and interweaving storylines, one would have to assume that the play runs for at least two hours. However, FastHorse’s script covers barely 90 minutes of performance with no intermission and cuts corners on justifying everyone’s unique motivations and objectives. 

This is where the play not knowing what it wants to be is truly harmful. With so many storylines and characters — and the added challenge of the play trying to be a farce — the script just does not fully expand or support any one character for the show to feel complete in any way. Furthermore, there are bits in the script that are added in and never returned to, making them one, truly unfunny, and two, distracting for the audience. 

Without spoiling the plot, at one point there are said to be three Marks in the play, but only two of them ever show up. The third Mark becomes a plot point that is inconsequential and a rather meaningless 10-minute segue in an already short work. 

The phrase “show, don’t tell” feels like it would have been useful writing advice for FastHorse. As humans, people don’t openly discuss their innermost motivations and objectives. It is up to the audience to interpret the character’s truest motivation based on good acting. There is one point in the play where Carmelo verbally announces that she is going to use Bowen’s desire to connect with the elder council as bait for her plotting. It would have been far more interesting for Carmelo to show this through her actions. 

The side plot about Grace (Dakota Ray Hebert) as a “race-shifting lawyer” is one of the funniest bits of the show, although again there is a misstep in direction. The scenes with Hebert stand out in terms of writing quality but feel as if they are a millennial trying to appeal to Gen Z, with Garcés’ staging, the addition of a selfie stick and Hebert livestreaming the beginning of a lawsuit trial.

The set, with sliding offices designed by Sara Ryung Clement, are standout, and the decorations inside the office and adorning the doors feel purposeful. Additionally, the use of windows within the set allows for some of the more successful farcical moments by Garcés to truly land. The audience feels as though they are given a window into the characters’ world. 

All in all, the show falls flat on multiple jokes and is too messy with characters and their relationships to be considered anything but confused. Perhaps between now and the Arena Stage run in Washington, D.C. beginning April 3, it will find its direction.