Lyrics from Lockdown
 
Reviewed by Gray Palmer
The Actors’ Gang
Through February 25

 RECOMMENDED:

Audiences will have one more weekend to see Bryonn Bain’s very fine Lyrics from Lockdown at The Actors’ Gang, the first offering in their series, “Spring Season of Justice.”

Bain’s one-man show follows closely his 2003 account published in The Village Voice, “Three Days in NYC Jails.” (He’s a very good journalist.) Bain was stopped for a defective tail-light and arrested on three outstanding warrants — about which he knew nothing as they were the result of identity-theft. Because his public defenders assumed that he was lying or crazy, his fingerprints were never compared to those of his “criminal double.” Had he not kept cool, had these events occurred elsewhere, the adventures of this hip-hop Jonah might have turned out much worse.

Lyrics from Lockdown premiered at the National Black Theatre in 2014 and was seen immediately afterward at UCLA. According to a program note, the show has been travelling widely to packed houses. A model of stagecraft for a show of this type, its success has clearly burnished the material and the performance.

Music, raps, poems, routines, family stories, all carved out from an exceedingly lonely place, Lyrics from Lockdown also features Bain’s correspondence with Nanon Williams, author of Still Surviving, who, as a juvenile, was sentenced to death in notorious Harris County, Texas. We’re led to the edge and we look into the dark, but we’re never without Bain’s warmth and humor.

In 1972, there were 300,000 people in American jails and prisons. Today there are about 2.3 million, the highest incarceration rate in the world. Another 7 million are on probation or parole. Because there is so much to do to change America’s mad, racist, classist criminal system, it’s inevitable that those engaged in the work of reform will get tired, tired, tired. Shows like this one help us all to stay brave.

The production is expertly directed by Gina Belafonte; the executive producer is Harry Belafonte. Live music is performed by a great three-man unit, featuring Isaiah Gage (cello), Click tha Supa Latin (beatbox), and John B. Williams (bass). Omolara Abode is the fantastic video DJ and designer, sound is by Pierre Adeli. Technical direction is by Jason Ryan Lovett, and from what I can tell, the board operator, Cihan Sahin, also has the touch of an artist.

The Actors’ Gang Theatre, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City; Thurs., 8 p.m.; Fri., 9 p.m.; Sat., 8 p.m.; through Feb. 25. (310) 838-4264, theactorsgang.com. Running time: 90 minutes without intermission.