Monday, December 29, 2003
Canadian black theater produces a classic?
Image courtesy: Mirvish.com
I'm still here in the T.dot so I'm gonna keep posting about stuff happening here until I leave tomorrow.
Highly recommended for anyone living here is the new Djanet Sears play The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God which I saw this past Saturday courtesy of my Mom.
I walked in expecting one of those cheesy travelling gospel plays starring washed-up R&B singers that they stage at the Beacon Theater in New York. Instead, The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God is actually an amazing piece of theater combining drama, music, song and choreography in a really refreshing way while exploring themes of faith versus rationality, science versus religion and racial identity politics in a small Western Ontario town.
The play almost takes on too much story-wise with its focus on the relationships of central character Rainey Johnson with her estranged pastor husband and dying father but, with a tight script that deftly combines comedy and drama and an amazing performance by Karen Robinson as Rainey, Sears pulls off what could have easily become pedagogic morality play.
Image courtesy: Mirvish.com
Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God also manages to cover many issues relating to what it means to be black in modern-day Canada while subtly exposing the oft-overlooked black contribution to major events in Canadian history like the War of 1812.
Hopefully, the bankrolling of this play by the premier theatrical producers in Canada, the Mirvish Brothers, is a bright sign for the future of more black-themed and created plays in mainstream Canadian theater. Someone needs to bring this play to the US. as well because the themes would be just as relevant there. For more details, click here.
Also, don't forget to check out my man Carlos Watson (from MSNBC show The Edge with Carlos Watson) on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° today reviewing the year in politics and tomorrow previewing the upcoming year at the following times:
Monday (12/29) @ 7 pm EST/4 pm PST
Tuesday (12/30) @ 7 pm EST/4 pm PST
