NO GOOD NIGGA BLUEZ
nytheatre.com review by Frank Kuzler
August 15, 2003
No Good Nigga Bluez brings someone from the outside as close as
you can get to intensely personal and often internalized feelings. Being
white, it is impossible for me to say what it is like to be a black man
in post-Civil Rights America, but as the tagline of its postcard
promises, No Good Nigga Bluez gave me a glimpse. In fact, it gave
more than a glimpse, for I left with many insights into the details of
being a black male in America today.The show is structured as a card game played by three friends who are telling stories about growing up black in contemporary America. The stories draw a portrait of the ugly and ignorant face of racism, one that is based in fear and, unfortunately, more domestic than we like to think.
One story I found particularly poignant relates how a young man earns and saves enough money to buy his own car and is simply listening to the radio outside his own home when the police approach (based on an erroneous report) and proceed to demand that he get out of his car. At first, he internally debates telling them who he is and that it is his car, but on second thought, and inspired by a healthy dose of pride, he stands firm, saying nothing and disobeying the officer's command to put his hands on the car. He stubbornly persists, realizing that he is just acting like, what he calls, "one of those other kinds of _____ ," and the police prepare to beat the young man into submission. In mid-swing, the policeman checks himself, seeing that the young man is wearing a Morehouse College tee-shirt, and asks if he is in school. With a simple "yes," he is now a different kind of _____, one that is accepted by the police. He justly concludes with the question, "what if I wasn't wearing that tee-shirt or what if I did not have the ability to work and actually save enough money to buy my own car or better, go to school?"
With the aid of video interviews, which add an interesting dimension to the whole, the piece explores modern perceptions of the word at the center of the show. There is also a segment telling the story of the word itself, its history and etymology, which climaxes with the hypocrisy and inconsistencies of its use being exposed.
There is so much more that can be said about No Good Nigga Bluez. In all, the presentation is simple and effective, right down to costumes which has each character wearing a solid red, white or blue shirt, and each element of the show blends nicely together, including the hip-hop versified form, the video, and the scene-work. Each of the varied performances by S�kou Writes, Mo Beasley and J-Square (who also wrote the show) are engaging and personally felt. I left sensing that I had been invited to witness something intensely private and completely believed.
