Review: A Community Processes the Shooting of Michael Brown in Dael Orlandersmith's UNTIL THE FLOOD, at Portland Center Stage

It's been nearly five years since Michael Brown, a young African American man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a young white police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri. A version of this scenario has played out several times since, and African Americans continue to die at the hands of police at a rate nearly 2.5 times higher than whites do. For this, and many more reasons, Dael Orlandersmith's solo play UNTIL THE FLOOD, in which the Ferguson community processes the shooting, is just as vital now as it was when it was first commissioned by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

To write the play, Orlandersmith interviewed several people who lived near where the shooting took place and used those interviews to create eight composite characters. Using simple lighting and a few costume pieces, Orlandersmith disappears into the various roles. It's a quiet, powerful play. Yes, there are some moments of rage, but they are few. The main sense is that something changed that day -- in the lives of the characters, the Ferguson community, the country as a whole -- something we're all still struggling to understand.

What I found most striking about UNTIL THE FLOOD is the extraordinary compassion that Orlandersmith manages to find for each of the characters, even the most reprehensible among them. In today's polarized world, it's so easy to judge people based on their membership in certain groups -- black, white, young, old, etc. -- that we fail to see them as people.

Orlandersmith avoids this trap, giving us real people who reflect on the event in complex ways. There's Louisa Hemphill, the 70-year-old black retired school teacher who has experienced a lifetime of racism (including "Sundown Laws," meaning there were signs in certain areas warning African Americans to not "let the sun go down on them in this town") and yet is angry at Michael Brown for his role in what happened. And there are two black teenagers -- one is lost and angry and imagines himself one day staring down the barrel of a white cop's gun, the other just wants to be left alone to study art history -- but they're both afraid and sad.

Orlandersmith also explores the many types of racism that exist in our society today. A black barber, a well-educated man who owns not just his business but the whole building, delivers a searing takedown of two young female college students who want to interview him about being a "victim," while a white school teacher truly can't comprehend why her empathy for Darren Wilson caused her to lose a close black friend. And a retired white cop believes that any good man can be a fair cop in any community, no matter what color they are -- of course, during his service, all of the the officers were white.

Then there's Dougray, a vitriolic racist who fantasizes about lining up Ferguson's black residents and shooting them execution-style. Even in this despicable character, Orlandersmith finds some humanity by giving us a glimpse into his childhood. It certainly doesn't excuse his behavior, but it does give him depth. In a strange way, Orlandersmith's portrayal of Dougray gave me the most hope -- if we can muster even the tiniest bit of compassion for a person like this, we might be able to heal the divide.

UNTIL THE FLOOD runs through April 21. It's a play everyone should see. More details and tickets here.

Photo credit: Patrick Weishampel/blankeye.tv/Courtesy of Portland Center Stage at The Armory

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