Review of the Ass Theater February 2018 X-video

There's a sense of déjà vu in watching the latest play chosen for Blackness History Month at the Market Theatre.

The show, One Night in Miami… , involves a coming together between iv iconic black men whose playful banter erupts into intense fence well-nigh racism and how to fight it.

Didn't nosotros have that in terminal year's play, The Coming together, you might call up? Well, sort of. Except that that had Malcolm X meeting Martin Luther King in a hotel room in Harlem, and now Malcolm X is coming together Cassius Clay, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown in a hotel room in Miami.

Information technology's as well similar in that beginning nosotros meet the bodyguards before the great men arrive, and it'due south the guards who add much of the sense of humour. Still, there'due south no such thing as a unique idea, so permit the contend begin.

One Night in Miami… by Kemp Powers was first staged in 2013 but is set in 1964, and is shot through with arguments about Islam plus the full spectrum of racism, from the ingrained attitude of white folks that subconsciously influences their behaviour to the overt "no blacks allowed in this establishment" diverseness.

With firebrand activist Malcolm X, boxing gnaw Cassius Clay as he's about to convert to Islam and go Muhammad Ali, soul vocaliser Sam Cooke and footballer Jim Brown, nosotros have a great array of characters and opinions to spark inflammatory conversations.

But for much of the time the play dutifully plods along, feeling worthy, wordy and rather tiresome. At that place are flashes of anger that light up the activeness, and comic moments from Lemogang Tsipa as Cassius Dirt, who moves beautifully and clowns around delivering the boxer's famous self-promotional patter delightfully. He too switches well into thoughtful mode when the mood changes into deep discussion.

The highlights, however, are the musical moments where Seneliso Dladla as Cooke belts out A Change is Gonna Come to rich applause, or jumps down to the front end of the stage to perform a nightclub croon.

The kickoff time he jumps towards the audience forces you into noticing how the stage pattern also affects the touch of the show. Manager James Ngcobo has put these men on a pedestal, metaphorically and literally, with a stage set that's raised at the dorsum where the characters are meeting. Yet we feel most connected when Dladla brings the activeness closer.

It feels incorrect that the music was more riveting than the dialogue, especially since there are important issues at play and some sharp insights shared. The moments when Malcolm X (David Arnold Johnson) is pontificating piously about how Cooke is doing niggling to help black liberation because he's non writing songs that challenge and provoke is a verbal highlight, but for regular visitors to the Market Theatre, much of this is familiar territory in other plays that delivered more fizz and firepower.

All the actors give a great functioning with an piece of cake interaction between them. The main quartet is completed by Richard Lukunku who captures the hulk and jocularity of footballer Jim Dark-brown. "Exercise you lot expect a canis familiaris to give you a medal because you don't kick it that day?" he rumbles, as he describes how an sometime white human being chatted pleasantly to him – but kept his black ass exterior on the veranda.

Black History Calendar month is an annual celebration of important people and events, which the Market Theatre celebrates with a play supported by the Usa Embassy. This twelvemonth information technology'southward moved its chosen product from i of its smaller stages to the large main stage, and I fear it's going to be a stretch to fill those seats.

I ended upwardly wondering if black audience members would enjoy information technology more than than I did, and better appreciate its banter and fine-grained assay of the all-time way to wipe out racism. Go on and let me know. DM

One Night in Miami… runs at the Market Theatre until 25 February. The theatre is running a special of buy 4 tickets for R50 each and get four free. Tel 083 246 4950.

Photos: Iris Dawn Parker

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Source: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-02-09-theatre-review-a-sense-of-dj-vu-surrounds-one-night-in-miami/

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