Imagine having the opportunity to interview various people who live in and around Ferguson, Missouri, and get them to really open up, even when they don’t realize how much they reveal. This is a play that uses an interview format to achieve a searing look at how racism affects people and how it bleeds into sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and income inequality. And the genius of it? It accomplishes this without judgment. This play was written in memory of Michael Brown.
Go watch this play. Go in with an open heart and an open mind. Be challenged. Because this is theater we need to hear and see.
Written by Dael Orlandersmith and filmed on location at the Clarendon Presbyterian Church in Arlington, VA (with special thanks to the Congregation and Session), this is a complicated piece of writing which is apt for a complicated subject in our country.
The interviews start off with Louisa (Bridgett McCain), a retired Black school teacher, who is angry, horrified, and heartsick at the violence. It moves to Rusty (Jack Mayo), a 17-year retired White police officer who is also angry, defensive, and blind to realities other than his own. This is a theme in the play — the anger and despair, but also the fear, on all sides, and the unconscious biases that permeate everyone’s lives. In general, the White characters don’t really see their privilege, and if they do, they claim it’s limited. One of the Black characters, Rueben (Neal Burks), who owns a barbershop and the building it’s housed in, is angry at the White do-gooders that come in and try to save black people by infantilizing them, but he also is clear to draw a line between himself and other Black people who haven’t had the success he had.
The two youngest characters, Hassan (Germona Sharp) and Paul (Marcus Murphy) are Black high school seniors (not the same high school). They are in some ways the most heartbreaking of everyone who’s story is told. Their youth is so wrapped up in just surviving that it’s hard to have time to do something wild and unthinkable — to have dreams and hopes. That brings home the legacy of institutionalized racism starkly.
We also meet Connie (Amy Griffin), a White teacher at a university who has lost a Black friend over this and doesn’t understand why and she considers herself beyond racism. One of the hardest portraits to listen to is Dougray’s (Tom Flatt), a White property owner and landlord who has a horrific backstory, but as he tells it, his perceptions becomes almost completely repulsive. Yet you see the fear enveloping him.
One character, Edna (Kecia A. Campbell) is a Black Universalist minister, and to be honest, I want to live next door to her. She has faced racism, homophobia, and alienation from her family. Now married to a man, another minister, she has the long view that sometimes comes out of heavy trials. When she speaks of love, she does so with grace and hope, and also the sadness that it will not be the answer for everybody.
The final character is The Narrator — a glorious Alicia Pilgrim who winds up the work with a poetry-slam type of monologue that is delivered starkly and without pity.
These actors go to remarkable depths with these characters. Behind the anger, bluster, and defiance, they all have one thing in common — fear. There is so much to fear — fear of being erased, fear of being killed for being the other, fear of losing whatever toehold one has in the capitalist economy, and fear of change. Orlandersmith’s writing also delivers a subtle rebuke to the world of unfettered capitalism and the way the chasm between the one percent and the rest of us breeds instability and fear.
Julia Janson directs with a controlled, yet light touch. Special kudos to Shemika Renee who did the costumes, hair, and makeup design, and to Lindsey June who created set designs with thoughtful props that helped tell the story. You really feel like you’re in these people’s homes, workplaces, schools, or playgrounds. Chip Gertzog is the videographer/editor and his work is seamless. Joe Simplson provided the St. Louis local visuals that bookend the beginning and ending. Sound design is by Christopher Crockett, and Maggie Landis is assistant director and stage manager. Michael Bagwell produces.
The show was originally commissioned and produced by The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and had an off-Broadway premier by Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre.
Go watch this play. Go in with an open heart and an open mind. Be challenged. Because this is theater we need to hear and see.
Running Time: Approximately one hour and 20 minutes without intermission.
Show Advisory: Racial slurs, suitable for mature teens and older.
“After the Flood” runs through January 24, 2021, in a virtual environment, by Dominion Stage, Arlington, VA. The show is free (although donations are always happily accepted) and is a three-step process — sign-up, reminder email with instructions, and final email with the link about 15 minutes before show time. For more information, please click here.
