Nicholas Heard and Ensemble Photo by Jenny Graham
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Open Fist Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre
Through October 22
RECOMMENDED
Dominique Morisseau wrote Blood at the Root in 2013, but first contemplated its theme in 2007, a year after six Black teenagers in Jena, Louisiana were charged with attempted murder in the beating of a White schoolmate. Morisseau plucked her title from the lyrics for “Strange Fruit,” the song by Abel Meeropol made hauntingly famous by Billie Holiday: “Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root…”
The context of the assault in Jena was significant; it followed the appearance of three nooses suspended from a tree in the campus courtyard — which appeared, reportedly, after a Black student sat under the tree in an area habitually occupied only by Whites. Even as the Black students were dealt with harshly — the victim of the assault was injured but not hospitalized — those responsible for the nooses, a hate crime, received a mere 3-day suspension from school. The disparity of the authorities’ response provoked widespread protest and nationwide attention. The ACLU became involved, monitoring the defense of the indicted teens. Eventually, the charges were reduced for all the defendants, including the one held most culpable, but all pleaded “no contest” and spent time in jail. (One of the six, Theo Shaw, has since graduated from the University of Washington School of Law, having received a full scholarship as a Gates Public Service Law Scholar.)
Deftly directed by Michael Shepperd at a tight 80 minutes, Morisseau’s rhythm and hip-hop infused play builds around broadly similar happenings but with fictional plot points and characters. The pivotal Raylynn (Nychelle Hawk), who is toying with the idea of running for class president, is here presented as a non-intellectual teen whose reflections on life have been impacted by the untimely death of her mother three years prior. Her best friend Asha (Caroline Rose), who’s White, has adopted the mannerisms of her Black classmates in response to her affection for her Black stepmother who had succeeded in making her feel loved and wanted.
Raylynn’s brother, DeAndre (Nicholas Heard), is a football jock also struggling to cope with the loss of his mom; while her latest crush is DeAndre’s teammate Colin (Jeremy Reiter II), a newcomer at school who plays hard on the team, in part to obscure that he’s gay (a reality not initially picked up on by the smitten Raylynn). The most interesting characters are Toria (Grace Soens), a firebrand student journalist who wants to cover topics like abortion and, later, the unjust incarceration of DeAndre after he beats up on Colin; and Justin (Azeem Vecchio), her editor, a let’s-play-it-by-the-book-and-not-rock-the-boat kind of guy who stymies every effort of Toria’s to say something significant with her journalism. It’s part of the welcome complexity of Morisseau’s perspective that Toria is White and Justin is Black. And, despite their differences in temperament, both have been marginalized by the prevailing high school culture as nerds and non-conformists.
As with her other plays, Blood at the Root delivers its social commentary not with polemic but through the characters’ conflicts and woes. The protagonists are both individuals and a group — in the latter case, hitherto politically-unaware youngsters suddenly made cognizant of injustice and defined, for the first time, by their commitment to change — or their indifference. The play also looks at how two people on opposite side of an altercation can share the same dreams and goals, and how even kind and sensitive people can find it impossible to forgive if they’ve been too deeply injured — so that friendships that ought to be never become what they should — an emblem for where we stand in this nation today.
Under Shepperd’s direction, a youthful ensemble performs with energy and commitment, and the pace never lags. Marc Antonio Pritchett’s sound design serves as the urgent prompt for Yusuf Nasir’s spirited choreography. Tech director Joel Daavid’s scenic design features a fantastical replica of a giant oak tree that Gavan Wyrick’s lighting scheme bathes in mystical hues.
While the character of Raylynn may serve as the focus for change (her evolution is the arc of the play), it’s the scenes between Soens’ passionate activist and Vecchio’s cautionary editor that make the most memorable mark.
The best, most dramatic moment of the evening is when Vecchio’s heretofore terse and reticent Justin spews forth with all the hurt inside him, making us understand why, unlike most of his peers, he chooses to stand alone.
Open Fist Theatre Company, Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 3 pm, Sept. 17, Oct.1 & Oct. 15, Sun., 7 pm, Sept. 10 & 24, Oct. 8 & 22; Mon., 7 pm, Oct. 9, dark Sat., Oct. 7.; thru Oct. 22. www.openfist.org
