DUTCHMAN & THE SLAVE Set to Run in Repertory at Mixed Magic Theatre
By: Robert Diamond Oct. 17, 2017
Mixed Magic Theatre (MMT) is thrilled to open its season with Amiri Baraka's Dutchman and The Slave, two searing, timeless and timely dramas that will be performed in repertory in the company's two renovated performance spaces Nov 10 -26.
DUTCHMAN, which premiered in March 1964 and received an Obie Award for Best American Play, is considered a seminal work in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This production, directed by MMT Artistic Director Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, follows Clay (Yakim Parker) and Lula (Kerry Giorgi), a Black man and White woman whose brief, tense encounter "in the flying underbelly" of a New York City subway car is a tangle of flirtation, ugly truths, and palpable rage that deftly grapples with the tempestuous intersections of race, sex, class, and gender. At turns amusing, vulnerable and dripping with an unrelenting fury, Dutchman has left audiences breathless for over five decades and continues to crackle in today's climate rife with passionate debate on the nature of truth, freedom, and identity.
Directed by MMT co-founder Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, THE SLAVE is a gripping companion piece to Dutchman, written in the same year. Set in a well-appointed apartment during a time of Black uprising and revolt, the action of the play revolves around the hostile encounter between the revolutionary leader Walker Vessels (Frederick Douglas), his ex-wife Grace Easley (Melanie Stone), and her husband Brad (Terry Shea). As explosions shake the building to its foundation and the victory of the revolution Vessels helped to foment seems imminent, the time has come to face the painful, complicated past and the uncertain future of race relations in America. The stakes couldn't be higher as they not only concern what remains of society outside but also the lives and identities of Walker's and Grace's young daughters as well.
WHAT
DUTCHMAN and THE SLAVE ( in repertory)
WHEN
November 10-26
Dutchman Performances: November 10, 17, 24, 25 @ 7:30PM
November 12, 19, 26 @ 2:00PM
The Slave Performances: November 11, 18, 24, 25 @ 7:30PM
November 12, 19, 26 @ 2:00PM
WHERE
Mixed Magic Theatre // 560 Mineral Spring Avenue
Pawtucket, Rhode Island 02860
Tickets
$20 General
$10 for Students & Military with ID
November 10-12: Students and Military (w/ID) are FREE.*
*Some restrictions apply. Please go to website for details.
For more info, go to www.mmtri.com or call 401.305.7333
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