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American
Urban Life In The Eyes Of Aishah Rahman
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Kerri
Kanelos
April
16th 2003 |
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Aishah
Rahman's Three One Act Plays, a collection
of thoughts on life in urban America now playing
at Perishable Theatre, touches upon many currently
relevant American themes through the lenses
of brutally honest characters. A professor
of English and Theatre, Speech & Dance
at Brown University, Rahman's creative and
touching dialogue for this performance was
truly impressive.
 The
performance begins with "Speaker's Head,"
a lone man's discussion about current events
involving the United States, his cat, hunting
vermin and weapons. Since this act is performed
completely in the dark until the very end,
audience members are entertained with veteran
Perishable actor Bob Jaffe's poetic and piercing
words. The speaker compares hunting with his
cat to America seeking and killing its current
foreign rodents.
Rahman did a
fantastic job writing this act, which is an
obvious anti-war statement full of American
clichés and sharp-witted statements
about our culture. The Speaker weaves fragments
such as "blue collar workers," "slippery
elections," "a unilateral event"
and "weapons of mass destruction"
throughout the performance. Jaffe cynically
ponders the war in Iraq, wondering if Iraqi
food and culture will make its way to the
shores of America. "Who ever heard of
sushi before Nagasaki?" he asks aloud.
Rahman also included several statements about
the absurdness of going to war virtually alone
and the one reason resounds several times.
The Speaker's purposeful slipups such as "One
for oil, oil for one!" and "controil"
instead of "control" are a cheeky,
but excellent way to get the point across.
 The
second act, "If Only We Knew," fully
utilizes the simple yet appropriate background
of navy blue and rust colored cityscapes that
are layered throughout and around the stage.
Saxophonist Randy Ashe sits in the corner
of the stage and plays cool, soothing jazz
melodies one second and striking notes the
next-whatever is appropriate to the scene.
Aboulaye, a young Guinea immigrant played
beautifully by Jonathan Mahone, is a peddler
in the streets of New York City who loves
everything American, right down to his beloved
Nike glow in the dark sneakers. The narrator,
Kevin Gibbs, tells the tale of Aboulaye's
struggle to make it big in the overwhelming
city and the young man's struggle with his
ancestral history. Gibbs tells the audience
how Aboulaye runs "though the black and
tan neighborhoods" of the ghetto and
"hides behind white man's newspapers"
in search of success and money. This act,
which takes place in the course of a day,
shows Aboulaye being unexplainably haunted
by his grandfather back in Guinea.
This act delves
into the lives of immigrants in the United
States and how all people are not necessarily
treated equally. By far, the most poignant
part of the performance comes at the end of
the act, when "eight gunshot eyes"
kill Aboulaye. Gibbs and Mahone work wonderfully
together as they cling to each other and take
turns describing how every bullet hits the
young man. The final shot pierces his precious
Nike sneakers and Aboulaye is finally reunited
with his grandfather.
 The
third and final act, "A Lady and A Tramp,"
follows the same format as Act 2-there are
two main characters with an accompanying musician
to play along with the mood of the performance.
Upright Bass player Rick Massimo added the
right touch of comic relief and subsequent
emotion to add greatly to the actors. "A
Lady and A Tramp" is a rather lengthy
dialogue on a city bus between Opal, an uptight
uptown designer and Psyche, a man who appears
to be a raging, alcoholic bum. The scene opens
with Psyche, played brilliantly by Mark Anthony
Brown, stumbling around the city while singing
"Thanks For Letting Me Be Myself"
as he urinates, passes gas and stumbles onto
the bus. The two characters meet as fumbling
Psyche offers Opal, played by Pamela Lambert,
a seat next to him. For the remainder of the
act, the two play well off of each other as
they make generalizations about their lives
and discuss some of the problems they face
in urban America. This act, although touching
on several important themes such as the American
myth of the scary black man, seemed to drag
a little and lacked the neat packaging of
the other two acts.
"Three
One Act Plays" is overall a beautifully
written piece that has a strong cast of competent
actors and musicians that bring Aishah Rahman's
incredible thoughts to life. I would highly
recommend catching a performance of this project.
This article was previously
published on www.lovethyjob.com |
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