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Dreamscape

Reviewed by Lovell Estell III

Los Angeles Theatre Center

Through May 17

RECOMMENDED:

Tyisha Miller was only 19 years old when she was killed by Riverside Police while seated in her car in December, 1998. Much like the current round of questionable police shootings, her death sparked outrage and protests but has long since faded from public recollection. In this engaging one-hour piece, writer-director Rickerby Hinds fuses hip-hop beats, music, dance, spoken word and movement to put a face on this tragic incident.

In this reimagining, Tyisha becomes Myeisha (a nimble Rhaechyl Walker, who applies just the right touch to Carrie Mikuls demanding expressive choreography), a spirited, in-your-face teenager from the IE (Inland Empire), whose young life was cut short in a volley of police gunfire while she was passed out in her car, gun on her lap.

The opening tableau provides the story’s background, constructing a vivid portrait of this young woman, with the bulk of the narration alternating between Walker and John “Faahz” Merchant, who portrays cop and coroner. Merchant’s dry, clinical description of the 12 bullet wounds inflicted on Miller’s body and the damage they caused is as chilling as it is sickening.

In resurrecting this sad, all too familiar story, Hinds also subtly explores the murky, volatile intersections of race, community and law enforcement that again are commanding public attention.

Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., Dwntwn.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through May 17. (866)-811-4111, www.thelatc.org