Amiri Baraka's 1964 Obie-winning play, Dutchman, is currently playing at Lynx Performance Theater under Al Germani's direction. It stars Michelle Procopio and Patrick Kelly with support from David B. Phillips and Bill Kehayias.
In the review process, it is common to research the play and playwright, even to read the play. In my backgrounding, there were volumes of Baraka, a smattering about the play, but few references to current or even recent productions. This play is consistent with Lynx's mission to provide its audiences with provocative, exciting, progressive theater by world-class playwrights. I might add, also, to stretch the theater experience of those who attend their productions.
Dutchman has been called a symbolic version of the Adam-and-Eve story, via the conflict between blacks and whites in the sixties. We are aboard a subway (here represented by two small risers, with a chair on each). A well-dressed black man (Adam) reads his paper as a strange white woman (Eve) enters sitting beside him. Tensions build. She becomes provocative, then violent. A struggle ensues.
The first section of the performance uses an extensive selection of black music through the ages with accompanying freezes, mostly in masks, of the players. Phillips plays a Ghost, possibly a conductor. Kehayias plays the sax, usually as emphasis, occasionally a much longer refrain.
Procopio's performance is excellent. She is an extremely expressive actress who can be wildly physical one moment, and barely move her face muscles the next. Yet she always portrays the mood swings of her predatory character -- a character bent on the death of her fellow passenger.
Kelly's Clay is passive, with only short utterances. He's a study in reserve, almost to the point of elegance, though he does have one very expressive moment.
Dutchman is a haunting piece, though its message is dated by the societal changes that have occurred in the last 42 years. The Lynx production offers an interesting look into the violence of our all-too-recent past.
