Boston
Issue: 9/9/04

RENO STRIKES BACK

By R.J. Grubb

As Republicans rallied and partied in New York last week, they frequently invoked the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Still, chances were slim that the GOP would tap sharp-tongued, straight shooting comic, Reno, to share her steely eyewitness account of 9/11 at Madison Square Garden.

No matter. Reno showed up at the Garden anyway. Parked outside its gates, she held placards and shouted in solidarity with the other thousands of New Yorkers who refused to stand quietly as the GOP nominated Bush for a second term.

Reno spent so much time on the streets, it proved difficult for this reporter to track her down concerning her anticipated appearance in Somerville. And when we finally did talk, the comic's normally animated voice cracked with the harsh, scratchy inflections of a voice weakened by an intense week of civil disobedience.
Barring further injury and - knock on wood - arrest, Reno should be sufficiently pumped for her upcoming weeklong stint at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway. After all, staying with the subject of 9/11, she'll finally bring her critically acclaimed political show, "Rebel Without a Pause: Unrestrained Reflections on September 11th" to Massachusetts for the first time.

A local premiere, although Reno opened the show in New York City on October 4, 2001, back when the nation's wounds gaped as raw and bottomless as Ground Zero and a complicit gag order seemed to fall over artists. But breaking the silence, Reno wrote a rapid-fire account of how she awoke in her Tribeca apartment that infamous morning and subsequently spent her days during the attack's bewildering aftermath.

Today, Reno is remembered as one of the first artists to speak about the tragedy. Likewise, "Rebel" lives as one of the city's first thoughtful and engaging shows to directly deal with the terrorism. Though Reno picked up raves for the show, toured it around the world and, with the help of filmmaker Nancy Savoca, fashioned a performance film out of it, she strangely eluded a booking in the Bay State.

The long-awaited state premiere was not lost on the comedian. "I was bummed out my reps couldn't get me a show in Boston," she said by phone. "Boston was intimately involved. They would have loved it and they needed it too."

That statistic will change when Reno gives Boston audiences their long overdue chance to experience "Rebel" from September 14 through 18 and September 24 through 26 at Jimmy Tingle's.

Given the dates, the performance acts as a sort of anniversary show. Yet while 9/11 is history of course, political events keep unfolding and irrevocably changing the world's landscape. As such, so does Reno's show.

No doubt, Reno will incorporate her RNC experience into next week's performance. Still, the big topic of patriotism remains a major theme for the work. Particularly, "Rebel" explores how pols urged citizens to adopt a blind patriotism following the attacks. In the show, Reno asks how questioning the government became an unpatriotic thing to do after two highjacked jets crashed into the World Trade Center.

The show's other movements include this November's high stakes election and how religious the country has become under the Bush administration. Given the difficult material, Reno said the show culminates with her "discussing what I think we need to do."

Reno didn't offer specific step-by-step directions. But when asked for further clarification, she elaborated her steps "didn't involve rewriting the constitution and wrapping herself in a flag." Instead, the performer said it was about "getting down to the truth."

In 1998, Boston gay audiences were first introduced to this unrestrained, passionate comic. Back then, Reno made her first feature film, "Reno Finds Mom," which screened at the Museum of Fine Arts Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Alternating from funny to deeply sad, the movie followed Reno as she tracked down the woman who gave her up at birth. The film was made for HBO, and featured special appearances by Mary Tyler Moore and Lily Tomlin, who would also serve as one of the project's executive producers.

Since then, Reno has tucked numerous accomplishments under her belt. She adapted her show, "Reno in Rage and Rehab", into an ACE Award HBO comedy hour. Her show, "Reno once Removed," was commissioned by Lincoln Center for their Serious Fun Festival and sold out with rave reviews. She's also written for PBS, VH-1, Comedy Central and National Public Radio as well as "Ms." magazine.

Celebrity portrait photographer Annie Liebovitz even snapped a famous image of Reno as the iconic American rebel. In it, Reno squares off in a denim jacket and defiantly raises a fist.

But being a rebel is not just an image Reno projects for the camera. Which is probably why when the words began to form for "Rebel," Reno knew she had to listen and speak. Since then, it's resonated with thousands who liken the performance to an act of healing - a balm similarly shared by the artist.
" For the first 25 years of my life, I stayed away from the stage from a fair amount of self-doubt," she said. "But this show changed me. It's probably the most consistent one-person show I've ever done and it has put me in a new light in my own mind."

Reno performs "Rebel Without a Pause" at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway Theater, 255 Elm St. in Davis Square, Somerville. Tickets are $25. To purchase tickets, call Theater Mania 1-866-811-4111 or viit www.jtoffbroadway.com. For more information, contact Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway Theater Box Office at 617-591-1616.