What defines blackness? The idea that there may be a clear answer is ridiculous. However, only skin color is needed to land two opposite teenagers in the same prison cell. From a legal point of view, at least the implications of race are clear.
The laughter and sometimes fatal assumptions of attending an American black man are “Hooded or black for a dummy” A comedy of imaginative and occasionally metaphysical identity by the playwright Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm. The production at 59E59 Theaters features the playfulness and aesthetics of an insightful and ambitious school project, traversing the prickly terrain with deceptive simplicity.
Marquis (Lambert Tamin) is spread out on the dead and playing ground in a pose called “Trayvon Martin” after Trayvon Martin. “It’s a meme,” he explains. His compatriot Tru (Tarrence J. Taylor) does not understand the point, but Marquis was caught doing such nonsense with some white friends (in the graveyard) and Marquis. Only was arrested.
“Typical,” says True, who embodies certain blackness-related practices (fly kicks, street smarts, brabads) that Marquis lacks altogether. Adopted by a white mother (Tjasa Ferme), an arrogant lawyer who easily erupts both boys from the town’s slammer, Marquis lives in Achievement Heights, where he attends a pure white academy. His mom thinks True will have a positive (ie, black) impact on her son and encourages him to live with them (True comes from poverty and takes good care of his parents). Is missing).
Marquis classmates are caricatures of whiteness, richness and ignorance. All the girls are blonde and are happy with their selfies. His best friends Hunter (Zachary Desmond) and Fielder (Henry James Eden) are troublemakers who make him a scapegoat. Marquis fits perfectly with his companions, with a retro preppy uniform and high life goals (costume design by Latia Stokes). However, if racial identity is performance, Tru considers Marquis not to have the proper script. That’s why Tru wrote what’s called “Being Black for Dummies,” which goes into the hands of malicious people.
“Hooded” shows greed for shapes and ideas. Chisholm unfolds a series of devices (reset and repeat scenes, illuminated signs of laughter) that disrupt the rhythm of the story and provoke indirect relevance. With the Greek theater looming (the set design of the disassembled paperboard pillars is by Tara Higgins), Chisholm tackles Nietzsche’s theory of tragedy, demonstrating the inherent duality of his young black character. “We all have a little Apollo and Dionysus,” Marquis tells True. (If you couldn’t say, Marquis is a kind of teenager reading Nietzsche in bed.)
There’s a lot to stuff in two hours, as there were few dummy guides to get black between the binder clips. Presented by “hooded” Undiscovered workIs evidence of a provocative and energetic writer with inkwells flooding the pages. The quest for race as a kind of tragic pageantry fits in with its current form, but there are more styles and entities here than are ultimately settled in a compelling theatrical debate.
Director George Anthony Richardson gives the production a bohemian guarantee. It’s a pleasing lo-fi, but for a projection designed by Hao Bai, which draws painful inspiration from European art, like a school playground similar to Edvard Munch’s expressionist paintings. Adult actors exaggerate teenage characters, suggesting both the youth’s volatile enthusiasm and Chisam’s interest in the origin of self-expression and politics.
“I’m black, so everything I do is black acting,” Marquis tells True. “Whether or not, or whatever!” He says he is growing up in a hurry. As with any symbolic representation, the meaning is determined not only by the object itself, but also by the viewer. The question is not who defines blackness, but who.
Hooded; or black for dummies
Until July 3rd at the 59E59 Theater in Manhattan. 59e59.org.. Execution time: 1 hour 55 minutes.
