Rainbow streets
Apr. 12th, 2006 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI went to the Loeb Ex production of when the rainbow is enuf & the streets were too much, a blending of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (Ntozake Shange) and the work it inspired, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the Streets Were Too Much (Keith Antar Mason). It was interesting, at times intense, but left questions, too.
The female play has women named for the six different colors they wear, while the male play has six men named for the numbers on their jerseys. The scenes played mostly in parallel, showing different perspectives on similar kinds of personal events (not always the same ones). The women's scenes were all about relationships, men, sex, friends, rape, and so on. The men's were sometimes about relationships, but also about being a black man in society, through the eyes of others, and that became the more important theme. In both cases, the characters don't develop particular personalities, being aspects of The Colored Girl's Experience or The Black Boy's Experience.
I noticed the use of theme sentences in a lot of scenes, one that was returned to and repeated again and again. It's a device that can work well, but it seemed overused here.
I can see how it can be an empowering play, but it also left me wondering where the minorities within the minority were. All mentions of sexual encounters were hetero, for instance, and black was black, no different cultures mentioned within the edifice the community experience. I know it's important to have the general culture expressed, but the lack of subcultures made me think the play a bit dated.
The actors were strong in the performance; definitely worth having seen.
The female play has women named for the six different colors they wear, while the male play has six men named for the numbers on their jerseys. The scenes played mostly in parallel, showing different perspectives on similar kinds of personal events (not always the same ones). The women's scenes were all about relationships, men, sex, friends, rape, and so on. The men's were sometimes about relationships, but also about being a black man in society, through the eyes of others, and that became the more important theme. In both cases, the characters don't develop particular personalities, being aspects of The Colored Girl's Experience or The Black Boy's Experience.
I noticed the use of theme sentences in a lot of scenes, one that was returned to and repeated again and again. It's a device that can work well, but it seemed overused here.
I can see how it can be an empowering play, but it also left me wondering where the minorities within the minority were. All mentions of sexual encounters were hetero, for instance, and black was black, no different cultures mentioned within the edifice the community experience. I know it's important to have the general culture expressed, but the lack of subcultures made me think the play a bit dated.
The actors were strong in the performance; definitely worth having seen.