In my high school English classes, I often asked my students to think of literature as both a window and a mirror: a mirror that reflects the universal human experiences we all share (love, death, friendship, betrayal, to name a few) and a window look through which nosotros tin learn well-nigh cultures and experiences we may know nothing about.
This adage was brought habitation to me at the opening nighttime operation of Carlyle Chocolate-brown's 1987 play, The African Visitor Presents Richard Three, The Theater Project's current production at Wedlock County Higher in Cranford, where it volition run through May xv. I knew nothing about such a theater company agile in Manhattan in the 1820s, formed by a group of free and runaway slaves (several from cane plantations in the W Indies), nor had I ever idea well-nigh the myriad roles slaves had to play throughout their lives. This play opened my eyes and fabricated me desire to learn more this forgotten moment in the cultural life of the times. After all, Denzel Washington was not the first blackness actor to portray Richard 3 (in 1990 at the NY Shakespeare Festival)!
Set l years afterwards independence and 40 years before the Civil State of war, the play—inspired by a true story—describes the obstacles encountered by a troupe of African American actors equally they attempt to produce and perform Shakespeare's Richard III in Manhattan. Because their theater just happens to exist located next door to the Park Theatre, newly reopened later a burn down and featuring the cracking British actor Junius Brutus Booth in the championship function of the same play, the white theater manager enlists the police to shut downward the African American production, thus neatly disposing of what he considers to exist a "travesty" and potential contest. Behind the scenes, during rehearsals, the company members struggle with having to portray characters and recite dialogue they dislike, their own painful histories, the hypocrisy of their social identities and their yearning for a theater that reflects their ain desires and goals. In a jail cell, however, subsequently they've agreed not to produce any more Shakespearean plays, company manager Billy Brown produces a script he's written based on the 1796 uprising of black slaves against the English navy and thought to exist the showtime piece of work by an African-American playwright to exist performed in the The states, thus bringing the promise of renewal and hope to the group.
Mark Spina gamely tries to get a steady hand on the product, only the play every bit written is a scrap unruly and uneven. The riveting story line is almost derailed by the playwright's inclusion of a gratuitous and unconvincing dear story between Ann and Jimmy Hewitt, the two "stars" of the visitor. When Ann suddenly disappears, production grinds to a halt, but to restart when Hewitt quickly requites her dearest in time for the testify to proceed. Too, some of the speeches sound more than like sermons than conversation, and the discriminatory white characters are stereotypical villains who gnash their teeth at the idea of African Americans daring to "play" Shakespeare.
These unthankful roles were performed very well by Gary Glor as theater impresario Stephen Price and David Neal as the Constable Man. Glor visibly seethes and trembles at the very thought of a rival—horrors: African American!—company putting on Richard Three next door to his theater. "Tonight the mantle falls on Mr. Brown'south sable little pageant," he says with wicked relish. And Neal's constable gets in on the act, reciting Hamlet'south "to be, or not to exist" soliloquy with a mouth full of apple! One gets the impression that he has little stomach for shutting down the African Visitor, just once Price appeals to his sense of duty, he has little selection but to forbid the anticipated "ceremonious discord."
The members of the African Company, were rather more conceivable. Daaimah Talley, as Sara, has two affecting speeches virtually her human relationship with her employer Mrs. Van Dam; her performance in the play enables the white woman to recognize her retainer equally a homo being. Likewise, Bliss Griffin (left, with Michael Flood equally Jimmy Hewlett) endows Ann with an attractive feistiness equally she balks at having to play Lady Anne, seduced over her father's coffin past the wicked Richard!
Information technology takes the rather arrogant Jimmy Hewlett, played assuredly by Michael Inundation, to remind her of the varied roles played by slaves all the fourth dimension (maids, mothers to children not theirs, menservants). Indeed this character voices the benefits of African Americans' appearing onstage. In a monologue, he intones, "I get to exist loved and accepted. To be openly admired. To feel myself, to be full of myself. To breathe air and requite it dorsum again. To make myself as if I were dirt.... The makeup, the costumes, and the robe. It'due south all glass that I know how to polish and make articulate. And so that whatever man tin encounter that I am any human." That former slaves tin portray kings and queens certain is exciting stuff.
As the troupe's conscience, Papa Shakespeare, Lorenzo Scott (left) portrays a resilient Caribbean griot with soft authorization, despite the fact that he was probably named Shakespeare by a primary who idea it was a skillful joke to requite a slave such a name. Laurence Stepney (above, correct) gives the company's founder and leader, Billy Brown, the dignity and presence needed to fifty-fifty think of mounting such a production!
Thomas Rowe has designed a multipurpose set based around a proscenium arch, as if to remind us of the theatrical nature of the goings on; a couple of trunks, a bench and a basket are all we demand to transport us dorsum in time and place. Eleni Delopoulous'southward costumes are appropriate yet unobtrusive; the men'due south clothing was peculiarly snappy. And Michael Magnifico'southward audio pattern—comprised of African chants, Negro spirituals, slave melodies and music from the era ("I Dream of Jeannie" virtually prominently)—really sets the scene for the audience and actors.
Unevenly written, The African Company Presents Richard III is, nevertheless, professionally performed, and although Zoya Bromberg's programme notes are informative, I found myself hungry to find out more about what happened to this revolutionary troupe of actors. History lesson, folklore projection, a treatise on the nature of dramatic performance, The African Company Presents Richard III is a worthy add-on to the local theater scene.
The African Company Presents Richard III will be performed Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at three PM at Matrimony County Higher, 1033 Springfield Avenue, Cranford. For tickets and data, phone call 908.659.5189 or visit online at www.thetheaterproject.org.
If you lot decide to take a teenager to see the play (recommended), here is a written report guide yous can download.
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