Posts Tagged ‘Slave Narratives Revisited’
Hip-Shot: ‘Slave Narratives Revisited’
Slave Narratives Revisited
a celebration of freedom
Studio Theatre
Remaining Performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ 7 PM
Sunday, July 20 @ Noon
Sunday, July 27 @ 4 PM
They say: “Multiple award winning author Ed Shockley follows the success of 2007’s world premiere of The Oracle with the D.C. premiere of a new touring show. Modechai Vanunu, Nat Turner, Nelson Mandela, Sitting Bull plus other historic and fictional characters manage to find humor and maintain dignity in the face of oppression.”
Brian’s take: Yesterday was Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday. To celebrate, Ed Shockley and lary moten (yes, he keeps his name provocatively lower-cased) of the Mosaic Theatre opened the DC run of their impeccably executed Slave Narratives Revisited: a celebration of freedom.
It is the mesmerizing performances by Shockley and moten that truly make this piece soar. I would use the word “unparalleled” if the two did not parallel each other so wonderfully and in such complementary ways. Talk about sweatin’ the small stuff: from a simple slackening of the face to an elaborate syncopating of a sermon, these guys employ a formidable arsenal of physical and vocal nuances to inhabit their various characters, and neither of them misses a beat. To read Slave Narratives Revisited would be one thing–an emotional but ultimately academic experience–but to see it breathing, to feel your pulse syncrhonize with the rhythms of speech, to look these characters in the eyes, to hear the silence, this is why we get out of our rocking chairs and into the theater.
