Performance, Identity, and Immigration Law: A Theatre of Undocumentedness by Guterman Gad

Abstract

Reviewed by: Performance, Identity, and Immigration Law: A Theatre of Undocumentedness by Guterman Gad Ana Elena Puga Guterman, Gad. Performance, Identity, and Immigration Law: A Theatre of Undocumentedness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014: 225pp. The slogan “no human being is illegal” has been repeated so often in recent years that it has attained the status of a cliché. Yet as Gad Guterman’s perceptive study of fifteen contemporary plays about immigrants from around the world amply demonstrates, the task of de-criminalizing immigrant identities is far from done. Rather than focus exclusively on one ethnicity or another, as many studies do, Guterman’s study ably compares plays that feature immigrant protagonists who hail from China, Ireland, Italy, and Uganda as well as Mexico, Ecuador, and other parts of Latin America. Instead of dividing chapters by national origin, the book’s organizational framework corresponds to various crucial elements of the legal construction of immigrant identity, as indicated by chapter titles taken from sections of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. My personal favorite is the absurdly bureaucratic title, “Act 212(a)(9)(B)(iii)(III),” subtitled “Family Unity.” The other five chapter titles indicate the book’s legal span: “Act 237 (a) (1) (B)—Present in Violation of Law,” “Act 275 (a)—Improper Entry by Alien,” “Act 274 A—Unlawful Employment of Aliens,” “Act 331—Alien Enemies,” and “Act 505—Appeals.” Skillfully interweaving pertinent information about immigration law throughout his critical interpretations of theatrical works, Guterman does more than create a context for the plays; he creates a dialogue between the law and theatre. Guterman draws fruitful connections between dramatic protagonists constructed as subjects of the law, the theatricality of the law itself (as underscored by the dual meaning of “act”), performances that the legal system requires of immigrants, and the treatment of law as a theme in many plays that feature immigrant protagonists. His methodology offers new insights into how the violence of immigration law has both deformed lives and prompted artistic resistance. Such resistance exposes legal violence, although at times it falls short of its full emancipatory intent. Throughout the volume, Guterman builds primarily on the theoretical work of anthropologist Susan Bibler Coutin, profitably applying to the field of Theatre/Performance Studies many of her groundbreaking observations on how the undocumented manage the contradictions of “non-existence.” [End Page 185] Chapter One juxtaposes two mid-twentieth-century works: Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge (1956) and the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song (1958). Whether depicting Italian male immigrants or a Chinese female protagonist, Guterman persuasively argues, both works suggest that illegality can be erased through marriage, thus promoting an “exit strategy” that relies entirely on individual efforts rather than on more lasting social change. Moreover, Guterman delineates how both the publicity surrounding the 1961 film version of Flower Drum Song and David Henry Hwang’s 2001 stage also effectively erase the young Chinese woman’s status as “illegal.” Guterman concludes that “[a]n unauthorized immigrant might no longer prove as viable a protagonist for a major commercial endeavor as might have been the case in the late 1950s” (30). Chapter Two follows a similar Latino-Asian American comparative strategy, with analyses of Culture Clash’s Bordertown (1998) and Josefina Lopez’s Latina classic Real Women Have Curves (1990), set alongside an analysis of Chinese-American Genny Lim’s Paper Angels (1980). Here, Guterman explores what he calls “border scenarios”—whether they take place in Tijuana, Mexico, in the San Francisco Bay area, or in a character’s own imagination. Only Chapter Three focuses exclusively on plays with Latina protagonists, specifically domestic workers: Milcha Sánchez-Scott’s Latina, Lisa Loomer’s Living Out, and Octavio Solis’s Lydia. The plays are analyzed in relationship to legal and historical events, such as the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and “Nannygate,” the 1993 child-care scandal that forced then-President Bill Clinton to withdraw the name of his nominee for attorney general, Zoë Baird, from consideration in the wake of the revelation that she had hired undocumented immigrants. One of Guterman’s most innovative theoretical contributions is the ingenious concept of “undocumentedface,” which...