Black Super Hero Magic Mama
Reviewed by Julia Lloyd George
Ophelia’s Jump
Thru Oct. 16
RECOMMENDED
The murder of a 14-year-old Black boy at the hands of police is never going to be a simple subject for a play, entrenched as it is in the brutally violent and racist systems of modern America. Nevertheless, Ophelia’s Jump’s and director Kathryn Ervin’s rendering of Inda Craig-Galván’s Black Super Hero Magic Mama brings a potentially overwhelming political topic down to the level of the intimately personal, focusing on the heartbreak of an individual victim’s mother, Sabrina Jackson (Kristi Papailler). Sabrina’s grief is anything but flat and stifling, as Craig-Galván refreshingly chooses to explore it through the lens of a comic-book fantasy world.
While Sabrina is very much the focus of the story and Papailler skillfully expresses the complex range of emotions tied to experiencing such a tragedy, the beginning of the play provides a brief, tantalizing glimpse into the mother-son relationship that she is mourning; we see how proud Sabrina is of Tramarion (Stephen Diaz), as he obsessively studies for a “Know Your Heritage” quiz bowl. We also see how protective she is, knowing how easy it would be for society to write her son off as a “thug.” That’s what makes his murder even more heartbreaking, as no amount of integrity and hard work can shield him from the split-second prejudices of a white cop, Dave Lester (Aaron Pyle). Mirroring the real-life 2014 murder of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, whose toy gun was allegedly mistaken for a real gun, Lester mistakes Tramarion’s shiny quiz bowl trophy for a weapon and fires for this reason. It’s a truly painful image that stays with you.
Thankfully, the episodic nature of the play allows for flashbacks that provide more of an insight into Tramarion’s life before its end. Scenes of his friendship and collaboration with a budding comic book artist, “Flat Joe” (Solomon Patterson), were some of my favorites in the play. These two actors have easy chemistry and a natural sense of humor; whether they’re ranking their favorite superheroes “without powers” or joking about Sabrina’s “ESP,” they’re irresistibly charming and magnetic. These scenes also allow the audience to better understand and empathize with Sabrina’s earth-shattering devastation at losing this incredibly talented and imaginative son. The lightheartedness contrasts with the grief-ridden distance between her and her sister, Lena (Nell Lawson), after Tramarion’s death drives this home, as well.
It’s then easy to see why she chooses the world of Tramarion’s imagination as her haven from reality; retreating into the unfinished comic book that he left behind, Sabrina transforms into a “Maasai Angel” who battles a progression of villains that we recognize from her real life. There are the predatory newscasters thirsty to commodify Sabrina’s grief: Connie Wright, a.k.a. Lady Vulture (Joanna Connie Tan) and Tom Blackman, a.k.a. Human Hyena (Rob Dobson). These two are especially entertaining together. Projection designer Sheila Malone cleverly uses real-life broadcasts of similar murders, emphasizing how news coverage can often blame the victims in these incidents and skirt the systemic problems at their heart.
While a couple of the villains that Sabrina faces in her imaginary quest seem unnecessary and a bit nonsensical—we see her face off with versions of “Flat Joe” and Tramarion’s quiz bowl coach, Corey Brackett (Frank Hunter)—it’s heartening to see how fierce and self-assured she can be in the body of this alter-ego. One can only hope that she holds onto some of that fire when she finally returns to her true life, maybe healing a little bit along the way.
Ophelia’s Jump, 2009 Porterfield Way, Suite H, Upland; Fri-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 4 pm; Thurs., 7:30 pm; thru Oct. 16. https://opheliasjump.org/ Running time: 90 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.
