By Mansfield Frazier
Playwright Lonne Elder’s masterful 1969 classic, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, opened Friday evening in Karamu’s Arena Theatre and the work remains as poignant as when it first premiered Off Broadway at St. Mark’s Playhouse in a production by the Negro Ensemble Company.
The Pulitzer Prize nominated play was a long-running success due to Elder’s skillful capturing of the nuances and angers of African American men whose lives have been marginalized by a culture that — unfortunately to this very day — doesn’t allow for them to fully participate in the pursuit of the American Dream.
Set in Russell B. Parker’s (who’s skillfully portrayed by Peter Lawson Jones) floundering barbershop on 126th Street in Harlem, the “ceremonies” in the title seemingly are the games of checkers the owner plays — and consistently loses — against one of his only customers, William Jenkins (adroitly played by Cornel Calhoun III). But the matching of wits on the checkerboard is analogous to the matching of wits with life the characters have to play.
Parker has two grown sons (both lay abouts), Theo and Bobby, who, due to their lack of obtaining an education, are damned to exist on the margins of life. Actors Prophet Seay and LaShawn Little both turn in workmanlike performances in their roles. Akin to so many other struggling black families — then as now — the breadwinning is left to the female member(s), in this case Parker’s daughter, Adele, who has stepped into the financial void created when her mother died. Katrice Monee Headd is a perfect fit for the role.
When Adele, tired of carrying the heavy load of supporting three grown men, threatens to put them out and change the locks, the oldest son does what all young men lacking an education (whereby they can earn an honest living) do: He turns to crime.
The villainous Harlem crime boss Blue Haven (played so well by Kenny Parker you quickly hate his strutting, preening presence with a passion) shows Theo how to turn the barbershop into a moonshine operation, and the quality of the product causes cash to begin flowing in … which, of course causes the family to begin to disintegrate.
Parker, as many lonely old fools are prone to do, takes up with a young gold digger portrayed by Cristal Christian, who simply has too much fun taking her character way, way over the top and making her choice work so well. She turns in an outstanding performance and probably has the best line in the play when she daintily takes a sip of the moonshine and spits it out screaming “What the ‘fuck‘ is this?!” The immediate change from crafty coquette to street ‘ho, and then quickly back again to slutty schemer lights up the stage.
As always, Karamu sets are skillfully executed, and veteran director Christopher Johnston wrings every ounce of drama out of the production that ends with a line all too common in black communities when Russell Parker, not yet knowing that his other son is dead, asks, “Where’s Bobby?”
The production runs through Sun 2/23. http://karamuhouse.org
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.