In the forum of performance, be it plays, opera, film, or the political campaign, the directorial rage is to create an immersive experience. The object is to make the audience feel the message of that performance in an immediate and intense way.
Such is the revival of George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum, a 1986 play with pre-recorded music underlaying live drumming and intense video projections. The work, consisting of eleven exhibits or sketches—one could also call them scenes—portrays and satirizes the legacy of African-American culture and identity. This reviewer partook of Washington, DC’s Studio Theatre production on July 10, 2024.
The immersive experience began as soon as audience entered Studio’s Victor Shargai Theatre where a huge rough-hewn slave ship seemed to be awaiting inspection, if not boarding. Next came a display of diorama boxes based on various scenes of the play. Then the audience was allowed to examine aspects of the set since there was no raised stage.
The other side of the slave ship revealed wooden benches for audience seating. The audience wasn’t allowed to nestle into a traditional theater seat with comfortable padding. No, the audience was taken on this 90-minute no-intermission journey of uncomfortable situations feeling the hardness of the seat. Once the lights went down, a woman dressed in a pink stewardess uniform descended the stadium-style seating and announced, “Fasten your shackles.”
An outstanding cast of five who acted, sang, and danced, carried most of the stage time, supported by an onstage drummer (Jabari Exum) and a short appearance by the child actor Ruth Benson. This reviewer’s favorite scene was “The Hairpiece,” where a woman (Kelli Blackwell) prepares to break up with her boyfriend. However, she becomes embroiled in an argument with the wig heads that unexpectedly come to life. Iris Beaumier played the Afro hair head with gleeful malice and Ayanna Bria Bakari, under a wig of long tresses, simpered with attitude as she tossed her hair around. Impressive and under the cover of darkness was the speed by which the dressing table for this scene appeared on stage.
“The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play” was the most layered scene with its allusions to such plays as A Raisin in the Sun and For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide…. In this sketch, each actor is awarded an Oscar, but that the Oscar has been yanked from the hands of the last awardee. One other favorite scene was “Lala’s Opening” which depicted a flamboyant singer in the mold of Josephine Baker. Like Baker, Lala, born in Mississippi, came from humble beginnings. Despite having a Black maid, Lala can summon her former self in the way she speaks. Iris Beaumier literally shone in this role. Lala’s gold lamé gown was a memorable costume by Moyenda Kulemeka.
While elements of racism inhabit The Colored Museum, this work focuses its satirical criticism on African Americans themselves, which makes it less potent as a truth telling vehicle in our turbulent time. The strengths of this production clearly settle in its theater set up with introductory art exhibits and rustic seating, clever staging with surprising doors and windows, outstanding performers, and its directorial immersive thrust which also included an environment of surrounding video projections. Praise to director Psalmayene 24.
Karren L. Alenier
