The title of Cherry Docs refers to combat boots heavily rimmed with hard steel. With his, white gang leader Mike repeatedly kicked an older dark immigrant, killing him. Danny, an ambitious Jewish lawyer must fulfill his commitment as a Legal Aid to prevent the legal death of Mike. Playwright David Gow has Danny take the lead in dyadic confrontations with Mike over how to make his case whereas each defends himself to us in serial monologues. From a mild-mannered start, happy with his “mixed neighborhood” and Asian wife, Drew Hirshfield’s upset Danny spends months trying to get the Neo-Nazi he abhors to aid his own defense. It has to be beyond Mike “just being drunk” and resenting immigrants.Tom Patterson captures Mike’s conceit, not only over his self-tattooed, “patriotic” white supremacist beliefs. He also got a well-off liberal lawyer to defend him “in this world” that shuns him with his low educational, financial, and social status. Director Kate Alexander makes evident how Gow explores all the differences between the men along the way and even at the end. Although Danny is the protagonist who tries to change Mike, the Skinhead wants to be known not as that but “an individual.” What does he learn as he gets into his case? How does Danny himself change professionally and personally throughout? What accounts for his violence that goes even beyond frequent screaming? We get Biblical references to important situations, especially bondage and freedom from captivity. But I did not experience all the significance of the final projected Passover scenes. In fact, I question Mike’s final status and how he will be able to help others with backgrounds like his. I also don’t understand whether Danny actually won or lost in the end and what would be the meaning of either. Still, Hirshfield made me feel for him. Though Gow’s ending is wanting, FST’s director and actors’ serious excellence leads to thinking about basic issues so important outside the play. On Bruce Price’s efficiently set FST Bowne’s Lab stage, Nick Jones provides magnificently moody lighting. One memorable scene has it putting bars on Mike while he’s free and talking up front. Adrienne Webber’s costumes are appropriate; I also salute her or whoever’s responsible for the important tattoos. Thomas Korp supplies his usual good sound design.
