Regional Theater Review: THE AFRICAN COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD III (Oregon Shakespeare Festival)

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by Tony Frankel on September 9, 2011

in Theater-Regional

A MISSED OPPORTUNITY

We learn very little about the history of the African Company (the world’s first known African-American theater company) and even less about Richard III in The African Company Presents Richard III. The very title sounds thrilling as we expect that an actual company of modern African actors will be guest artists at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, performing Shakespeare’s Richard III with an interpretation that is fueled by centuries of war, colonialism, and apartheid. Instead, director Seret Scott saw fit to dust off an unwieldy, exasperating 1994 script by Carlyle Brown that attempts to lionize what may or may not have been a seminal moment in theater history. Even as there are insightful moments in the play, such as Richard’s hump mimicking the scars left by a master’s whip, it is the exquisite acting that saves this muddled mess of words.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival - The African Company Presents Richard III – directed by Seret Scott – review by Tony Frankel

Charles Robinson as Papa Shakespeare

While the black American experience is woefully underrepresented on stage, the choice of producing this troubled play sadly points to the desperation for black voices to be heard in the theatre. Ironically, that same theme – self-expression by a minority – is what drives this brilliant story about William Henry Brown (a resonant Peter Macon), a free black in the north who founded the African Company. This new acting troupe – which includes James Hewlett (Kevin Kennerly), the first black actor to perform professionally on the American stage – has decided to put up Richard III right next to the New Park Theatre in New York where Junius Brutus Booth will be doing his own interpretation of the deformed prince. In fact, this play opens with theatre impresario Stephen Price (slick Michael Elich) announcing to his Park audience that the black troublemakers have been quelled by arrest and will not be performing. “And now,” he says, “Richard III.” Yet what follows is not Richard III at all, but a flashback in which two black maids, members of the company, set up a plot device that ultimately falls flat: Ann (Tiffany Rachelle Stewart) is in love with James, and Sarah (comic and vulnerable Gina Daniels) is her confidante.

We the audience are not on board that this is a flashback and it takes some time into the play for us to even realize that both women are actors in the company. A fascinating device would have been to pull the curtain at the Park Theatre and see the African Company in rehearsal for their own Richard III. Either way, it takes a while to adjust, because we are not sure if this is a play within a play, the time-line is confusing, and the conflict, which is more about getting Richard III on its feet, should have centered on the need for these artists to express themselves.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival - The African Company Presents Richard III – directed by Seret Scott – review by Tony Frankel

Tiffany Rachelle Stewart and Kevin Kenerly

Ms. Stewart seemed an odd casting choice, being that she appears to be a white actress and her accent was decidedly Deep South. One can understand colorblind casting and gender-bending in the theatre, but this story screamed for all-black actors. This issue was troubling to a group of audience members, some of whom said that it took some getting used to; others applauded such brave casting of what may have been a mulatto character. Much to my shock, it turns out that Ms. Stewart actually is African-American,
but next to her dark-skinned co-actors, she appeared lily-white (at least from mid-house). Adding to this consternation is that the playwright decided to forego a much-needed exposition as to Ann’s past – there was no indication that she was a former slave (or was she?).

In what may have been a salute to Shakespeare, actors break the fourth wall to speak to us, a device which feels odd when other characters enter during these self-same monologues. Some of the stories are richly entertaining, such as Papa Shakespeare (Charles Robinson) relating his skills as a “griot” (one who mediates conversations), and Kenerly’s brilliant retelling of a white crowd which insisted that the great actor, Hewlett, sacrifice soliloquies for coon show dancing. But who are they talking to?  Moreover, there is no clear protagonist and many of the characters’ back-story was either skirted over or omitted completely.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival - The African Company Presents Richard III – directed by Seret Scott – review by Tony Frankel

Constable-man (Mark Murphey) informs Papa Shakespeare (Charles Robinson) and William Henry Brown (Peter Macon) that their theatre has been closed.

The two white characters in the play, Price and the Constable who arrests the actors (Mark Murphey), are written as two-dimensional melodramatic villains; we desperately needed to see what internal motivations fueled their complicity in drowning out the African Company. Price’s concern about losing money was not a strong enough driving force, and the Constable, who could have shed light on the complexities of free black men in white society, was a wasted opportunity.

Surely this could have been a more invigorating experience, but unfortunately, Ms. Scott’s direction is unfocused and flat, and the overly simplistic set by Richard L. Hay (some curtains and boxes) added no depth to the proceedings.

This is simply one of those plays which never deserved a revival, unless an auteur or dramaturge was willing to have the playwright re-write and re-focus the piece. (The same applies to To Kill A Mockingbird, which the Oregon Shakespeare Festival also restaged this year.) This fascinating footnote in history deserves its place in the sun, but not in this incarnation.

tonyfrankel @ stageandcinema.com

photos by Jenny Graham

Oregon Shakespeare Festival - The African Company Presents Richard III – directed by Seret Scott – review by Tony FrankelThe African Company Presents Richard III
scheduled to end on November 5
for tickets, visit http://osfashland.org/

 

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