BUZZARDS, BOOTY, AND BECOMING
NSangou Njikam’s A Freeky Introduction soars with swagger, satire, and sacred disruption.
“An eagle was born in a nest of buzzards,” proclaimed playwright and performer NSangou Njikam in the comical opening monologue of A Freeky Introduction, his new work that opened tonight at Atlantic Stage 2. As Freeky Dee, he embodies the spirit of a West African griot, a preacher, and a liberator all at once, therefore every line serves as a poem, a parable, or as an erotic metaphysical dispatch. The result is stand-up comedy transformed into a series of hilarious revelations, certainly not too subtle but engaging nonetheless. On Njikam’s right side, DJ Monday Blue proved to be more than a DJ; she danced, acted, and shaped the energy of the piece, proving to be an indispensable co-performer. As the audience walked in, she spun a seamless blend of Digital Underground, George Clinton, Public Enemy, and Arrested Development, grooves that instantly set a laid-back, funky vibe.
At the heart of this play is a fable: a young eagle is raised among buzzards that ridicule and reject him. When an elder eagle descends from the sky to awaken our hero to his true nature, the transformation begins. What follows is a glorious and literal kick to the buzzards’ groins, a comic rejection of conformity. The young eagle doesn’t ask for a seat at the table any longer; he flips the table and flies away. Eagles in this tale are obviously the outsiders who dared to question the story they were handed, and the buzzards a stand-in for an oppressive, ignorant culture.
Then comes the reveal: Freeky Dee isn’t just a narrator but a divine trickster, a sacred clown, a being “born between Sacred and Profane,” here to “satirize, paro-dize, and mytho-size all up and down your thighs.” In this cosmology, God is no bearded, stoic father figure but a plural, gender-shifting, self-loving being. They do not command but gyrate, ache, pulse, and call to Themself. God meets God, and from their union (The Big Bang) explodes the universe: time, space, rhythm, and reason. Creation, here, is sensual chaos and, like identity, it is messy, ecstatic, and born of disturbance. It is the same divine disturbance that shakes the young eagle from the buzzards’ nest and sets him flying.
The play’s allegories may be blunt but they are resonant and hilarious. Aside from the young eagle, Freeky told us about a love affair that changed his life with a fine girl named Liberty, Lady Liberty. French by birth, African by flavor, she rocked sundresses like she invented sunshine. Everybody wanted her; never faithful and always elusive, she flirted with the tired, the poor, the huddled. It is a sharp, sexy tale on America’s broken promises, but the ending is too good to give away, you’ll have to see the play.
Under the direction of Dennis A. Allen II, what could have easily become a disjointed mix of styles, or just another stand-up routine, landed with clarity and coherence. His trust in Njikam’s passionate performance was unmistakable and well deserved, but while the audience interactions added a dimension, they ran long and disrupted the otherwise seamless rhythm of the piece. Jill M. Vallery’s choreography was flawless and drew from an appealing lexicon that included Beyoncé’s iconic routines, voguing, hip-hop, Broadway jazz, and freestyle, all embodied with confidence and fire by Njikam.
Jason Ardizzone-West’s set looked like an ancient Egyptian temple, a tiny cozy nightclub, and dreamscape all at once, basically an altar to Transformation. Costume designer Iusaset “U-U” Bakr dressed Freeky and the DJ in fashionable streetwear, outfits that reminded me of the energy of a Nigerian nightclub while remaining fully integrated into the logic of the piece. Lighting by Sim Carpenter occasionally faltered in following the action, sometimes leaving DJ Monday Blue in semi-darkness, but with the show freshly opened, such glitches are fixable. Meanwhile, G. Clausen’s sound design enveloped the room in an environment where beats, movement, and poetry lived in perfect harmony.
It is clear that A Freeky Introduction is dedicated to the oppressed, the misfits, the outcasts, the overlooked, those who have forgotten they were born with wings. It reminds us that our weird is sacred, our chaos is divine, and conformity can shove it. Kick the buzzards where it counts before rising above the noise.
photos by Ahron R. Foster
A Freeky Introduction
Atlantic Theater Company Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street
90 minutes with no intermission
ends on June 22, 2025
for tickets, visit Atlantic
