Life with Jewel

“What is love, but destruction… to love fiercely, to destroy and be destroyed.”

Just one of the powerful quotes that focused on the theme of love in ML Kinney’s play “Life Among the Natives.” Kinney gave birth to the notion of creating this play due to frustration with the current “coming out” stories. Focusing on the meaning of acceptance and unconditional love, even with having a chaotic or unstable family, this performance is smart, edgy and will make you an instant fan of Kinney’s work.

Because not only does  Jewel Native deal with coming out to her family, she has to accept them for the way they are as well.

Like good wine, this play will leave a taste in your mouth you’ll remember for a long time to come. Erasing the many stereotypes behind stories of this type, it forces you to look at the people involved in the situation and not the situation itself.

That process is also a rather simple one once you look at the characters in the play.

The cast includes Jewel Native (played by Ashton Heyl, the eldest daughter of a game hunter and famed author, Azalea Native (played by Jaqueline Sydney). Azalea’s mother and Jewel’s grandmother “Tinkerbell” Native (played by Emily Ward) is addicted to pain killers and is completely convinced that their next door neighbor, Mr. Hernandez (Samuel Muniz), is the one and only Elvis. Jewel’s father Richard Native (Tom Cleary), who is running for state assembly, decides it’s best to run as a cross-dresser. And Jewel’s 10 year old sister LuLu Native (Meghan Rose Tonery) is a landmine expert. And Jewel’s adopted brother Adam “the monkey boy” ( JJ Von Mehren), was raised by monkeys.

The play begins as Jewel and her grandma Tinker Bell set the table for dinner. When Amanda (Miranda Jonte), a social worker, and the love of Jewel’s life decides to drop by for a visit: Amanda quickly discovers that when she is introduced to the family as Jewel’s friend, that Jewel has a big secret to reveal.

Amanda and an unexpected family member help Jewel come out and come to terms with her family, which is handled carefully, yet skillfully by the entire cast. When Jewel wants to leave her family to get married, Amanda convinces her that before any of this is possible, she has to tell her family, you feel the tension in the room, as if an entire house of playing cards is about to fall on the stage. Jewel is certainly shocked by her family’s response, and clearly learns that what she was trying so hard to run away from, was the very thing she needed the most. Her family loved her unconditionally, but did she feel the same way?

Jewel always wanted to be “normal” and she never wanted to be labeled a Lesbian.

She finds out later that normal has nothing to do with being a part of a loving and caring family.

Despite being a comical endeavor, this play brought up important issues that all people can relate to in our society. Kinney brings to light that sometimes acceptance starts with being able to accept others, and having enough confidence to know that coming out only creates a label if you let it.