Landon Woodson and Stephanie Berry
Photo credit: William M. Brown
The Tulsa Oklahoma race riots of 1921 devastated the prosperous
Greenwood section of the city famously known as the "Black Wall Street."
That terrible event, during which the local sheriff and bands of whites destroyed
homes and businesses, the alleged result of an assault on a white woman by a
black man, lasted for two days. It provides
the historic background and the inspiration for Nikkole Salter's domestic drama
"Repairing a Nation," now
at the Crossroads Theatre.
Set in 2001 eighty years after the riots, or as a character
insists on calling it "the Greenwood massacre," the play primarily focuses
on the trouble created by the fictitious Davis family's most contentious member.
Lois Davis (Stephanie Berry) is a confirmed outsider whose unsettling visit to her
cousin "Chuck" (Phil McGlaston) and his wife Anna's (Chantal Jean-Pierre)Tulsa
home during the Christmas holidays brings the subject of reparations into sharp
relief and with it a very personal focus. The handsome living-room setting
designed by Gennie Neuman Lambert also accommodates a large overhead video
projection screen.
For starters, Lois wants them to become involved in a class
action suit instituted by members of the community who are seeking reparations
from the government on behalf of the riots' survivors and kin. Long-standing, deep-seated
animosities, regrets and hostilities surface with increased tenacity as Lois, a
semi-estranged, economically challenged,
political activist makes no excuses for herself. More importantly, she does she
pretend to have much love or even affection for her wealthy cousins despite her
unapologetic attempt to get Chuck, as head of the family, to sign a document in
support of a congressional proposal to study reparations for African Americans.
Also present are Lois's son Seth (Landon G. Woodson) an NYU
student who has been raised since infancy by Anna and Chuck, and whose relationship
with his feisty birth mother is, at its best, strained. Also helping Lois in
her cause is Seth's former girlfriend, a community advocate currently preparing
a memorial at the local cultural center. It is there and where opening and
closing scenes take place that a statue will be unveiled in memory of the two-day
riots.
It is the community's suit for reparations that serves as the
springboard for Salter's characters to become more heatedly embroiled in a disturbing
recriminations and disclosures that may, indeed, involve past deceptions, lies
and now the very real possibility of reparations among the immediate family
members. The Davis family business, a successful janitorial service, survived
the riots, but who actually inherited it and owns it comes under question when
an old newspaper article/photo comes to light.
While the actors have a tendency to direct their speeches,
quite a lot of it is unnecessarily expository (the playwright's device), directly
to the audience (a directorial decision by Marshal Jones III to be sure), the
performances are, however, vividly realized. Most impressive is Berry, as the proudly
snippy and snide Lois. McGlaston is excellent as the blustery and fiercely
defensive "Chuck" while Jean-Pierre gets points for being more
beautiful and conciliatory than her husband deserves. Moore is charming as the perky
"Debbie" and Woodson quite fine as the conflicted Seth.
Salter, whose co-written play "In The Continuum" was a Pulitzer Prize nominee and won
the 2005 Outer Critics Circle award for Outstanding New American Play, has
written this play to dramatically expand upon actual legislative bill proposed
by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. a Congressman that has never made it to committee. This,
despite the fact that it is proposed year after year. How great for Salter that
her plays do make it past committee and get onto the stage: four premieres this
season with "Repairing a Nation"
being her first to be produced at the Crossroads Theatre Company.
"Repairing a Nation"
Crossroads Theatre Company, 7 Livingston Avenue, New
Brunswick
(732) 545 - 8100 or
www.crossroadstheatrecompany.org
Tickets: $25.00 - $45.00
Remaining Performances: Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8
pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 3 pm. Student matinee March 4 at 10 am.
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