During the 90s and 00s, the world centered their attention on the hundreds of women murdered in Ciudad Juárez, right on the U.S.-Mexico border. However, there is less media attention on a similar situation that has been altering the lives of many families here in America.
Playwright Laura Shamas exposes the traumatic ordeal of the families who navigate the bureaucracy and indifference of the authorities when Native American women go missing. During the opening scene, four women are sitting at the Sheriff’s office, waiting for news about their loved ones. Lynda (Carolyn Dunn) and her daughter Jo (Harriette Feliz) have reported the disappearance of Sara, Lynda’s daughter. Sadie (Zoey Reyes) is expecting news about her former girlfriend, Becky, who went missing recently. And Marie’s (Jehnean Washington) niece and a cousin are also missing.
From there, the exposition of the characters tells us that Sadie still cares about Becky. Marie has a a podcast, and Lynda is also very concern about the safety of her daughter Jo, a young woman who is also at risk of being kidnapped and murdered. The women complaint about the so-called “man camps”, the temporary housing units set up by oil companies near Native American reservations. The workers living in these man camps are rarely prosecuted if they commit crimes against Native women. But there’s more than just man camps that are troubling for these women. In the case of Lynda’s missing daughter, there is something far more sinister and complicated, something that involves international organized crime.
Left pretty much alone by the authorities, the four women decide to take matters into their own hands. With some leads, they collaborate with other women to organize search expeditions. These expeditions are similar to the ones undertaken by the families of the missing women of Juárez and Mexico in general, where more than 60 collectives of relatives have found multiple bodies of murdered people, originally reported as missing.
The four women in the play try to help each other, but under duress, even the best intentions are put to the test and their unity is soon replaced by distrust and resentment. Lynda and Jo receive some news from the Sheriff’s office, but they need to keep it to themselves. Unable to share the news with Sadie and Marie, their relationships start to crumble. The conflict and emotions are effectively used by Harrison to display the disruption of human behavior when faced by uncertainty.
Director Jeanette Harrison uses the limited elements available—The Victory is an intimate theatre, so there’s not much space for props or set design, although there a few creative set changes in between—to convey the different scenarios in the script, the search missions being the most challenging scenes to stage.
Harrison and her thespians are able to recreate the tension, drama, and anxiety depicted in Shamas’ story to magnify the epidemic of violence and murder afflicting the Native communities. The play references some laws that have been enacted to protect the Native women and enhance their safety. One of those laws is Savana’s Act, passed in 2020, aimed at improving the government’s response to missing or murdered Indigenous people. This law was enacted after the murder of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a pregnant member of the Spirit Lake Tribe who was killed when her baby was ripped from her womb. Savana died, but her baby girl survived miraculously and is now living with her father.
Underfunding, discrimination, indifference, and lack of media attention are some of the reasons why people don’t know much about the missing and murdered cases of Indigenous women. To complicate things even further, when searching and solving cases of missing Native women, authorities and families have to navigate the intricacies of federal government, state government, and tribal government, a jurisdictional maze that causes many cases to just fall into oblivion.
Four Women in Red is a powerful story that contributes to raise awareness of this critical issue. The four actresses deliver a moving message of empathy and solidarity in a time of need. It’s a play that has to be seen to really understand the nature and urgency of the situation. And hopefully, like in the case of Marie’s podcast, this play can help spread the word and call for action.
Four Women in Red
The Victory Theatre Centre
3326 W Victory Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. / Sundays at 4 p.m.
• Previews: Feb. 8 and Feb. 9
• Performances: Feb. 14 (International Day of Action for #MMIW) through March 23
Tickets: https://thevictorytheatrecenter.org/
Written by Laura Shamas (Chickasaw Nation). Directed by Jeanette Harrison (Onondaga). Produced by Maria Gobetti and Evan Bartoletti. Presented by The Victory Theatre Center.
Starring Carolyn Dunn (Tunica-Choctaw/Biloxi, Mvskoke), Harriette Feliz (Chumash), Zoey Reyes (Dinéh and Chicana), Jehnean Washington (Yuchi, Seminole and Shoshone)
Creative team: Costume designer Lorna Bowen (Muscogee Creek Nation, Seminole and Cherokee); lighting designer Grayson Basina (Ojibwe); production designer Evan Bartoletti; sound designer Jose Medrano Velazquez; graphic designer Nipinet Landsem (Ojibwe and Michif, descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation); dramaturg Gail Bryson; and photographer Tim Sullens. The associate producer is Lisa Lokelani Lechuga and the stage manager is Ngan Ho-Lemoine.
