It has inexplicably become fashionable in some circles to deny the existence of evil.
Addressing anyone taking that stance, I urge you to look closely at The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, and you will see that pure evil has walked among us, and that its spawn walks among us still.
To grossly oversimplify due to limitations of space...In 1921, racial tensions in Oklahoma ran high.
Having only achieved statehood in 1907, the first order of business for the newly established State Legislature was to institute and enforce strict white supremacist "Jim Crow" laws, severely limiting the civil liberties of all non-whites, across the boards.
Meanwhile, in that period of only fourteen years, The Greenwood District of Tulsa had blossomed to become one the most prosperous and self-sufficient African American communities in The U.S.; a garden spot outstripping the white neighborhoods across the tracks, arousing their jealousy and resentment.
Over Memorial Day weekend of 1921, using a trumped-up rape charge as its excuse, a loosely organized militia/mob of angry white vigilantes attacked Greenwood with firebombs both from the air and on the ground, leveling it.
More than a century later, reports still vary, but all the numbers fall in this range: forty city blocks went up in flames; three hundred men, women, and children were killed; another eight hundred suffered injury; and nine thousand became homeless.
Police ignored due process, interring blacks in detention camps while not a single white was detained.
In defiance of the laws in place, reparations were never made in any significant amount.
The cover-up, yet another layer of criminality, endured on every level for seventy-five years, until in 1996 The State Legislature authorized a bi-partisan study. The recommendations of The Oklahoma Commission to Study The Race Riot of 1921 began to be implemented, the horrors of The Tulsa Race Massacre gradually entered the public discourse, and its compulsory study was embedded into school curricula.
To reduce the possibility of their happening again, genocidal acts must be exposed, examined, analyzed, publicized, and rejected, and their perpetrators held accountable.
RESURRECTION, a piece for the theatre by Anne L. Thompson-Scretching, bravely attempts to do its part by shining a spotlight on the harrowing stories of individuals caught up in the horrific events of TheTulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
Monologue-driven, RESURRECTION has a bi-partite structure reminiscent of Ancient Greek theatre; action-oriented monologues in counterpoint with commentary offered by narration.
The theatrical conceit upon which the piece revolves is that all of the characters speak in the voices of the dead, who are temporarily resurrected to tell us the unfiltered truth of their stories.
The playwright has adopted a blunt, no-holds-barred approach to the monologues. They are each skillfully crafted and, fired point-blank at close range, hit the mark more often than not.
The actors are given the opportunity, all too rare in today's theatre, to "go for it" at length, which they each do with wholehearted commitment, albeit with varying degrees of success.
Outstanding among them in the opening night performance I attended were Marsha St. Julien and Jonathon Horton, estimable actors who delivered memorable, elegant performances, whose command of their instruments was equal to the extreme demands of the material.
In addition, it was a delight to see Ms. D, praised on these pages for her star turn in the recent BUFFALO HERO, render her cameo with acute observation and poignancy.
The absence of a coherently detailed Author/Director's program note caused me consternation and confusion.
In the skeletal text provided, RESURRECTION was described on the one hand as "based on true events" and on the other as "a fantasy based on true events' ' - to my way of thinking two very different things. There was no way for me to determine whether I was attending a docu-drama, a dramatization of history, a semi-historical evocation, or a work of pure fiction inspired by facts.
Since there was also no indication that RESURRECTION is a work-in-progress, I am compelled to review it as a finished script.
That being said, I often felt I was at a lecture/demonstration in a seminar room rather than seated in a theatre.
Yes, theatre on certain subjects has a didactic responsibility, and this is certainly one, but I did not find that the form this took was helpful to the task at hand.
Each demonstration in this piece, however vivid and touching it may be, makes precisely the same point in precisely the same way, which might be functional in the classroom, but is impedimental in the theatre.
The many strengths of RESURRECTION were undermined, after the first three monologues had registered effectively, by a monotone drumbeat repetition which lacked a crescendo.
It became a one-note song of inflammatory emotionalism, an easy way out which I consider unworthy of both subject and playwright.
This self-defeating aspect was underlined by a directorial pace that was often lugubriously slow and theatrically self-indulgent.
There was therefore little dramatic impetus onstage as a unifying arc over the episodes, nor was there significant thematic or intellectual development in the script proper.
The second act was a missed opportunity, and the finale - an extended moment of hysteria as a pathetic, despicable person crumbled - veered dangerously close to daytime drama.
Puzzlingly, the whole was capped by a brief, perfunctory denouement.
All very frustrating, especially after such a lengthy performance.
There Is material here for an important play, and the playwright is obviously skilled enough to deliver it.
A large gap, however, presents itself to bridge.
I suggest that greater objectivity is needed.
Exerting the emotional discipline necessary to make the right changes just might usher the tantalizing potential of this script into significant and lasting accomplishment.
Perhaps the playwright might bridge the gap by working with a rigorously disciplined, boldly outspoken dramaturge who is unafraid to insist upon major revisions.
RESURRECTION premiered at The American Theatre of Actors in 2020, on the eve of The Tulsa Race Massacre's centenary, and these 2023 performances are part of the theatre's laudable WOMEN IN THEATRE initiative.
The American Theatre of Actors, under the direction of Founder and Artistic DirectorJames Jennings, has demonstrated, throughout the forty-seven years of its dynamic history, a consistently sensitive socio-artistic conscience by fostering new work dealing with ethics and practice, topics which affect society at large and the way we live our individual lives.
I urge you to support their work any way you can. Their easily navigated website contains complete information on how to participate;
The American Theatre of Actors - 314 West 54th Street New York, NY 10019 212-581-3044. https://americanthetreofactors.org