The digital magazine of New York indie theater
Loading

The Lives of Young Black Folk

nytheatre.com review by Thomas Weitz
August 15, 2005

The Lives of Young Black Folk, Juneteenth Legacy Theatre’s premiere New York production, is a collection of two one-act plays about some of the challenges that face black youth growing up in America today.In the first play, Young Sistas, we are given access to a meeting of the “all black, all female, and over 21 club,” a group of three friends who meet to share and compare. Each woman in the play represents a different relationship to men: January is a bride-to-be, Crystal a recent divorcee, and Sandy is single. The relationship among the women unfolds as they discuss their pasts and what they hope for in the future. January wants to marry her boyfriend because she knows he is too incompetent to take care of his son. Crystal wrestles with January’s impending marriage the way she wrestles with the memory of her ex-husband. She was so beaten and bruised by her marriage that the only place she feels comfortable going out to at night is a lesbian bar. And Sandy is in the middle of all of it trying to determine the best path for herself. This is not just a sob story about three women struggling with a cycle of poverty and abuse. This play is full of humor and what the writing lacks in refinement the actresses Charita A. Armstrong, Tamara Green, and Daphne Crosby make up for in the dignity they bring to their characters.If Young Sistas is about finding dignity, Bang! Bang! Bang!, the second play in The Lives of Young Black Folk, is a story of losing it. Bang! Bang! Bang! starts off with a shot as a young black kid named Newboy (played by Christopher Burris) is gunned down in the street. For the next fifteen minutes, Newboy lies paralyzed on the ground as he describes the excruciating pain of a gunshot wound and the frustration and embarrassment of being powerless to prevent being robbed. To the credit of the director, Sue Lawless, the character of Newboy barely moves the entire time, allowing the audience to focus their imagination on both the literal and metaphorical experience of paralysis. Eventually, the police show up and handcuff Newboy for having run away from an undercover police officer, the same officer who had shot him in the back three times at the top of the play, thus stripping Newboy of any chance at redemption. Had it not been for a final scene where the spirit of the boy rises up to further drum in the deplorable circumstances of the crime, this would have been a fantastic play. Regardless, the concept is wholly original and Lorna Littleway, the author of both plays, should be praised.