A jazz-based, poetic piece, asking questions about the absence of Black stories in mainstream American history.
This is a caption
The reviews are in.
“This local premiere of an early, experimental work by Suzan-Lori Parks, the Obie Award-Winning playwright known most recently for Spike Lee’s Girl 6, has drawn controversy over its staging, but that’s the least of your reasons to see it. THE AMERICA PLAY sifts itself into a loose but rich meditation on anonymity and history, myth, mimicry, and authenticity, reenacting and re-memories, and I wouldn’t doubt that its Great Hole would yield many more angles, even after several viewings.”
The City Pages
“When’s the last time you went to the theater and just before the show, the director advised everyone not to think too much? How about the last time you walked out of a theater completely baffled? Those are luxurious and rare experiences indeed, both offered by Frank Theatre’s production of THE AMERICA PLAY, by young New York playwright Suzan Lori Parks. Of course, director Wendy Knox didn’t mean it. That is, she meant that we should listen to the play as if it were music, rather than worry about what any individual line might mean. It seems the wider that one opens one’s ears and eyes to this weird dream sequence of a play, the more one has to think about later-and make no mistake. There’s a lot to think about.”
Kate Sullivan, Star Tribune
