Slave Play

Reviewed by Steven Leigh Morris

Mark Taper Forum

Through March 13

Jeremy O. Harris’s burlesque-drama, wistfully staged by Robert O’Hara with a charismatic ensemble, streaks across the theatrical firmament like a comet. Yet the tail is more luminous than the substance of the object itself — an object that rattles and prattles along its trajectory, unsure of whether it wishes to be regarded as an object of insight, of provocation, of titillation or of mystification.

It can be seen as any or all of those descriptions. Ambiguity is not necessarily a virtue. Three Black-white couples participate in group therapy, led by a fourth Black-white female couple. The subjects enact psycho-sexual fetishes in order to better understand their sexual dysfunction. I like the idea in this play that we are not as we appear, which is very much tied to the premise of theater itself, even in a psycho drama about psychodrama such as this. That said, I’m mystified by the adoring reception this play received in New York. Mark Taper Forum, 135 Grand Ave., dwntwn.; Tues.-Sat., 8 pm; Sat., 2:30 pm; Sun., 1 & 6:30 pm; thru March 13. https://ctgla.org (Steven Leigh Morris) See Stage feature.

Stage Raw’s first weekly podcast, Stages of Our City, is now available. It features Julyza Commodore and Terry Morgan, with their views on Slave Play (Mark Taper Forum), Umoja (Black Creators Collective at the Will Agee Theatre in Inglewood), Power of Sail (Geffen Playhouse), and How We Got On (Sacred Fools).