Zoot Suit Review
Review: Zoot Suit
The Script
A musical is a form of literature that seems like a myth because it is a historical story that displays many themes involving a community of native Mexicans who lived in the Los Angeles at around 1940s(Valdez et al. 2001). The play revolves around the main character Henry who is a victim of racism and nationalism at the time in the United States. The game has a lot of symbolism which is a crucial role in the literature to serve as a representation of culture and the influences of the culture on the social life of the characters and even the audience of the play. The play is suitable to be aired to the audience because it has many themes of human rights. There is the theme of racism. The Mexican Chicanos are treated differently from the white race. They are stereotyped and associated with acts of criminality, even when they are innocent. Henry, who is the main character, is seen to be a criminal and is arrested severally in the play. Despite being young, he has had several collisions with the police. He is, however ambitious and wants to join the navy to fight for the country despite all the hate that he receives. The use of symbolism to present the themes of racism is evident in the play.
Where the zoot suits represent the identity of the Chicanos, and the newspapers represent how the press is misused by nationalists and racist who hate the Chicanos. There is an attitude towards the Chicano community in the play. They are seen as trouble makers. The police arrest the characters who wear zoot suits just because of the twisted attitude. The newspapers and the press assist in boosting the stereotype and the stigma against the Mexican Chicanos. The play tries to bring out that every person depends on equality to be served even from the justice department. The justice should not be biased based on race and nationalism but should be established on truth.
Design Elements
Many design elements are depicted in the play. However, the two most unambiguous details are the symbolic use of the newspaper to represent the press and the symbolic use of the zoot suits to represent the culture and identity of the Mexican American. In the musical literature, the zoot suits symbolize and represent the culture of Pacheco and the Mexican American culture. It is an identity of the Chicanos in Los Angeles. The young Chicanos love to wear zoot suits so that they can identify themselves as a native Mexican. The Mexican Americans dress in zoot suits which comprise of long coats and long trousers with a chain watch to match. The zoot suits represent their identity and how they like to be seen. However, the law enforcement department is biased and uses those zoot suits to identify them as criminals and even arrest the people who dress in zoot suits. The other symbolic element which aids the design of the mythology is the use of newspapers to represent the corrupted press. The audience is introduced to the play using a newspaper headline. The newspaper describes the news which is used by the racist government to victimize the Mexican Americans. The main characters of the play are displayed in the newspapers, and their character traits do not match how those headlines describe them. This shows that there is a significant influence of the press on the everyday lives of people. It influences the perspective of the audience on the understanding of the Chicano community.
Acting
The characters in the musical are interesting ones. They are so good in there acting, and they play their roles in a way that the audience will give all attention. The use of the 38th street gang leader as a protagonist in the musical is a clear way to capture the audience attention. The mention of the sleepy lagoon murder case is also one that is historical and attracts the attention of the audience on its first event of mention in the musical play. The characters play their role and represent the more substantial part of society in general. The protagonist Henry who is the leader of the 38th street gang, represents the Mexican Americans who were going through a hard time facing challenges of racism and nationalism. The el Pacheco is also a main character who plays two roles in the musical. He is a narrator and plays as the conscience of el Pacheco at the same time. He advises henry during hard times. He dresses in the zoot suit and represents the native Mexican identity which is also very traditional to the Chicano community. However, El Pacheco is a pessimist. It becomes a paradox that he is the conscience of henry who turns out to be an optimist because he believed that Alice and George could bring him to justice which happened. The American government finally released henry after the struggle. The family of henry and the entire Chicano community did not recover from the fear of police. There is still fear that the police are mistreating the Chicano community. They do not like their identity of dressing in zoot suits, and they use that as a way of identifying or associating them with criminal gangs. The other characters, like Alice and George, represent the few Americans who care about justice and still feel the need of having fair trials in court that are not stereotyped and prejudiced. Rudy, who is a younger brother to Henry, is an ambitious character but is hot-headed one who almost gets in trouble each time. He wants to be liked and respected like his older brother henry. He represents the Chicano community and the ambitions of the young Chicano men. He should have stepped up more to help his brother through the right way of justice.
Directing
The directing of the musical is excellent and contributes to the understanding of the setting and the plot of the entire play. The director uses the most appropriate sceneries and the necessary sound effects that display the themes and the characters in the simplest way to understand them. The director uses the play to depict the issues of self-presentation and identity by the Chicano community. This aim of the director becomes successful in the way the conscience of the main character is used to represent the real Mexican American. The Chicano community is considered the wave of criminal events by the media, and it becomes a public attitude towards the Chicanos. The director presents this community to be unique, and that is how the uniqueness becomes questionable by the law enforcers who take advantage when looking for suspected criminals. The media also see the community as the source of criminal activities and paints the town in ta lousy picture. The press is counter-attacked by a communist Jew who is Alice. Alice develops a story that counters the narratives of the other newspapers, and this becomes an exciting part of the directing of the play. While other media stations are busily tainting the name of Henry, there is Alice who has fallen for henry and is helping him get justice. The director also ends the play in narration and good suspense because different people have different stories about how henrys life ended.
Response
The musical is an enjoyable piece to watch. The musical is both thrilling and knowledgeable because it is based on an actual occurrence of the sleepy lagoon murder case. The case is a historical one, and the events that are depicted in the musical are almost the same as the events that happened during that time as in the historical records of such activities. The themes of politics are exciting and intensive to deal with. The case of racism and nationalism is quite impressive. The style itself becomes a big part of the performance as the play is symbolic mythology to address human rights violations, especially in the United States of America. The problems faced by the characters in the musical are the same problems that many still face today. It is quite sad to see that history is always repeating itself. The narrator, at the end of the musical states that the myth still lives on, and it seems it still exists in the way racism exists. This is a play that I would recommend for young revolutionists to watch, and I would probably be thrilled to watch its live performance.
References
Valdez, L., Valdez, D., Guarna, R., & Loewenberg, S. A. (2001). Zoot suit. LA Theatre Works.
Peiss, K. (2011). Zoot Suit: The Enigmatic Career of an Extreme Style. University of Pennsylvania Press.