{"id":69925,"date":"2018-06-20T10:26:39","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T14:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/love-between-black-men-faces-impossible-odds-in-sugar-in-our-wounds-and-pass-over-review\/"},"modified":"2018-06-20T10:26:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T14:26:39","slug":"love-between-black-men-faces-impossible-odds-in-sugar-in-our-wounds-and-pass-over-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/love-between-black-men-faces-impossible-odds-in-sugar-in-our-wounds-and-pass-over-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Between Black Men Faces Impossible Odds in \u2018Sugar in Our Wounds\u2019 and \u2018Pass Over\u2019: REVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Between Black Men Faces Impossible Odds in \u2018Sugar in Our Wounds\u2019 and \u2018Pass Over\u2019: REVIEW<\/b>
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Two playwrights addressing the subjugation of Black bodies in America show how little has changed in more than a century, with bracing and powerful new plays that opened off-Broadway this week. The system of oppression that enslaves Black characters in Donja R. Love\u2019s Civil War-set <\/span>Sugar in Our Wounds<\/span><\/i> assumes a more amorphous shape on the present street corner of Antoinette Nwandu\u2019s <\/span>Pass Over<\/span><\/i> \u2014 but the men<\/a> there are just as surely trapped. <\/span><\/p>\n

Love\u2019s cruel fable, set at the base of a tree grown massive from the blood of those who\u2019ve hung from its branches, is part of a trilogy the playwright describes as \u201ca surrealistic voyage through queer love during pivotal moments of Black history.\u201d The first installment opened last night in a Manhattan Theatre Club production, directed by Saheem Ali, at City Center Stage II.<\/span><\/p>\n

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James (Sheldon Best) shares a small shack with Aunt Mama (Stephanie Berry) \u2014 neither his aunt nor his mama, but \u201cprobably older than God,\u201d so in charge all the same \u2014 and Mattie (Tiffany Rachelle Stewart), the light-skinned daughter of their master and another slave. The master\u2019s legitimate daughter, Isabel (Fern Cozine), a brutal beauty, is teaching James to read. When Henry (Chinaza Uche), a brawny runaway, shows up on the plantation, he and Henry quickly fall in love. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s uh beautiful thing ta know yaself,\u201d Aunt Mama tells James after she discovers his love for Henry, admitting she\u2019s kissed many women<\/a>\u2019s lips. \u201cAnd I ain\u2019t talkin\u2019 \u2018bout da ones on day face kneever.\u201d (Go off, Aunt Mama!)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Love paints in broad strokes, but draws on Afrocentric narrative traditions to conjure a rich palette. His characters are near archetypes \u2014 naive James, shrewd Mama, noble Henry, vicious Isobel \u2014 but tenderly drawn. The ensemble buoys them with flesh and blood, rendering an unlikely romance all the more sweet and its harsh circumstance that much more painful. <\/span><\/p>\n

That the play\u2019s outcome feels almost overdetermined only underscores the grace of James and Henry having found love in a hopeless place. \u201cTurn dis ugly inta ya beauty,\u201d Mama tells them, speaking generations into the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the dreamscape of <\/span>Pass Over, <\/span><\/i>which opened at Lincoln Center\u2019s Claire Tow Theatre Monday night, Nwandu draws parallels between histories of persecution and perseverance, all within a freewheeling riff on Samuel Beckett\u2019s <\/span>Waiting for Godot<\/span><\/i>, sharply directed here by Danya Taymor. <\/span><\/p>\n

For Moses (Jon Michael Hill) and Kitch (Namir Smallwood), two men<\/a> whose days unfold on concrete under a streetlamp rather than moss beneath a tree, finding joy in everyday life means looking out for each other. They trade rapid-fire quips in a raw vernacular that borders on poetic, a style with echoes of Suzan-Lori Parks. (Moses: \u201cman<\/a>\/ what\u2019chu fixta do today\/ man<\/a> damn\u201d Kitch: \u201cman<\/a>\/ I\u2019on know man<\/a>\/ what\u2019chu fixta do\u201d Moses: \u201cgot plans\/ you feel me\/ big ol plans\u201d Kitch: \u201cgot plans to stand there\/ stroke yo dick<\/a>\u201d) <\/span><\/p>\n

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The two also share an intermittent determination to get off the block, or \u201cpass over,\u201d and reach their full potential. They just as frequently put their hands up and freeze, quaking in fear, as cops patrol the street.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of God, they\u2019re visited by polarized emblems of white authority, both played by a shiver-inducing Gabriel Ebert. The first wanders on in an ivory suit with a picnic basket, Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf in one, greeting their generous use of the n-word with a \u201cgosh golly gee\u201d sheen of wholesomeness and hospitality. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWho are you boy<\/a>\/ you goin somewhere?\u201d is the police officer\u2019s refrain, though he already has his own answers: They\u2019re hoodrats, hardly human and headed nowhere \u2014 trapped by his perceptions as much as by his gun. Though Moses and Kitch are free men<\/a> on the street, their circumstance is hardly a far cry from James and Henry\u2019s, though they\u2019re bonded by a different sort of love.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the face of overwhelming injustice, it\u2019s fitting that Love and Nwandu both unleash forces of magic in their stories \u2014 the kind that defies the impossible, like a sort of wish-fulfillment, and the kind that startles you awake to see the world as it really is.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Grit and Heart of the 2018 Tony Award Winners Show Theatre Is More Relevant Than Ever: RECAP<\/a>
Starry Broadway Revival of \u2018The Boys in the Band\u2019 Lends Gay History a High Sheen: REVIEW<\/a>
Time\u2019s Up? Not So Fast: \u2018Carousel\u2019 Is Back on Broadway: REVIEW<\/a>
Get in, Losers: The \u2018Mean Girls\u2019 Musical Is Fun as Hell: REVIEW<\/a>
In \u2018Three Tall Women\u2019 and \u2018Yerma,\u2019 Stunning Portraits of Women on the Verge: REVIEW<\/a>
Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane Star in Electrifying \u2018Angels in America\u2019: REVIEW<\/a><\/strong><\/em>
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Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar
<\/a><\/em>(photos: joan marcus, jeremy daniel)<\/p>\n

The post Love Between Black Men Faces Impossible Odds in \u2018Sugar in Our Wounds\u2019 and \u2018Pass Over\u2019: REVIEW<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Love Between Black Men Faces Impossible Odds in \u2018Sugar in Our Wounds\u2019 and \u2018Pass Over\u2019: REVIEW<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n