Reviewed by Dr. Tiffany Raymond, PhD
In writing about the theatre, 19th-century critic William Hazlitt noted, “it is the source of the greatest enjoyment at the time.” While Hazlitt penned those words two centuries ago, they immediately sprung to mind on opening night at City Theatre’s newest production, Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue.
Theatre is not a repeatable (or pausable) screen-mediated experience in one’s home. It is transitory and enriched by the vibrancy of community as those around you influence your experience. Opening night of Paradise Blue with nary an empty seat at City Theatre was ebullient with eager anticipation.
Something unexceptional just two years ago, being nestled in a full theatre among theatergoers, has transformed into a thrilling spectacle of wonder. May we never take that wonder for granted.
(Photo by Kristi Jan Hoover)
Given the play takes place at the Paradise jazz club, the absence of pre-show music was notable, but the joyful din of human chatter is its own music in the post-pandemic world. However, that only serves to heighten the impact of Theron Brown‘s original music as soaring, soulful, drawn-out trumpet notes open the show as the lights come up. The ceiling fans awaken and stir lazily, almost instinctually, with the music. Scenic designer Edward E. Haynes, Jr‘s visually stunning set is framed by lighting designer Jason Lynch‘s epic neon sign spelling Paradise. The sign faces upstage, and we read it backwards, immediately foreshadowing that this version of Paradise is askew and inverted, a visual cue reinforced by the sign first lighting up in a fiery red. The Paradise club rents rooms upstairs, and Haynes’ set rotates between jazz stage and bedroom. Haynes’ visual metaphor is richly laden as the two sides of the wall are ultimately both sites of performance, just for different audience sizes.
The play is set in 1949 in Detroit’s black neighborhood of Black Bottom. Much as the awareness of theatre as community was achingly palpable on opening night, community – a community at risk (another echo of the past two years for theatre) – is also at the heart of this finale to Morisseau’s Detroit Trilogy. Segregation and discrimination are the tangents that created Black Bottom. In post-WW2, it’s now a target for urban renewal efforts that will displace the community, one that doesn’t have a readymade relocation site.
At the play’s center is the Paradise club owner Blue (played by Rafael Jordan). Blue is a trumpet player who struggles with his musical voice (Theron Brown’s training of Jordan on the trumpet is a triumph) and also escaping the shadow of his dead father, a renowned trumpet player himself and former Paradise owner. To return to Hazlitt, he aptly describes actors as “the only honest hypocrites.” Director Kent Gash comes up short on urging Jordan into the hypocrisy as Jordan hesitates in domestic violence scenes with his girlfriend. Jordan’s notable tentativeness at those moments is at odds with the unequivocal displays of intimidation and power that fuel abusers.
Gash does cultivate an easy cadence that throttles from banter to confrontation for Blue and his two bandmates, Corn (played by Wali Jamal) and P-Sam (played by Monteze Freeland, one of City’s co-artistic directors). Freeland finds that honest hypocrisy, and the physicality of his drunken stumble paired with a slur that’s still distinguishable is award-worthy. Blue’s battered girlfriend, Pumpkin (played by Melva Graham), struggles with her voice carrying, resulting in some dropped words. Her character’s naive sincerity shines through, albeit a bit one-dimensionally, which hampers her credibility as the play unfolds.
Silver (played by Eunice Woods) is the last to appear on stage and immediately commands it. Gash guides Woods’ oozing confidence that’s seated in, but not defined by, her sexuality, or in Corn’s words, she’s “looking like Sunday on a Tuesday.” Silver is thoughtfully provocative, smoking languorously and unabashedly dressing down to a satiny red bra and panty set with matching garters in front of Pumpkin as Pumpkin shows Silver around her rented room. As an unattached and entrepreneurial southern woman, Silver unnerves Blue, and Silver not only wants to rent a room but buy the Paradise. Her keen and actionable suggestions on improving profitability immediately threaten Blue as a male, a businessman, a local, and a musician, raising even broader questions around who owns a community and highlighting the even thicker layers of discrimination surrounding black women.
While the theatrical experience is ephemeral, a great production echoes in one’s mind and is cause for reflection. Paradise Blue echoes in all the right ways.
City Theatre’s production of Paradise Blue runs through April 3rd. To purchase tickets for the show (proof of vaccination required at the door), please visit https://citytheatrecompany.org/play/paradise-blue/.
Categories: Reviews
Leave a Reply