PicksInSix Review: American Son - GhostLight Theatre
Explosive Confrontations Rock GhostLight’s ‘American Son’
by Ed Tracy | PicksInSix® Review
A hearty, near capacity, audience turned out on a snowy Sunday afternoon in Benton Harbor, Michigan for The GhostLight Theatre’s compelling production of Christopher Demos-Brown’s “American Son” directed by Aaron Reese Boseman. The play marks the return to live indoor performance for the community-based organization that is emerging from the pandemic as a cultural center for theatre, the arts and other activities under the leadership of Artistic Director Paul Mow and Executive Director Martha Hesse.
The black-box theater at 101 Hinkley Street opened in 2019 with its first full season of performances and then ran headlong into the 2020 pandemic shutdown. Like arts organizations everywhere, live performances were suspended and operations across the board were put on hold. Thanks in large part to a robust volunteer base, passionate supporters and creative uses of the space in the interim, GhostLight has persevered, hosting a terrific PechaKucha program outside last summer among other outdoor productions including “The Light In The Piazza.” In a recent launch event, GhostLight celebrated the announcement of the 2021 season with a standing-room only reception and preview. Through it all, Mow and Hesse remain committed to the long-range goal of establishing the GhostLight as a year-round performance venue.
“American Son” premiered on Broadway in November 2019 with Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale in lead roles following a world premiere production at Barrington Stage Company three years earlier. Demos-Brown’s play unfolds in real-time during the early morning hours in a waiting room at a Miami-Dade County, Florida police station. Kendra Ellis-Connor (Afiya Latham), an African-American university psychology professor, is pensively waiting for news of an incident involving her son, Jamal and the arrival of her estranged husband Scott (Charles Askenaizer), an FBI agent who is white. Kendra is unable to contact her son by cellphone and receives only sketchy information from the duty officer, Paula Larkin (Beth Ward), who is reluctant to share any details with the distraught mother. Kendra becomes increasingly frustrated and dismissive, seeing Larkin’s questions as a veiled attempt to racially profile her son who has recently received an appointment to West Point.
The dynamic in the waiting room shifts radically when Scott arrives. Assuming the man was there in an official capacity, Larkin provides the first real clues about a traffic stop that involved three Black men thus propelling the racially-charged storyline forward and casting light on the plight of growing up Black in America. Following an explosive confrontation between Scott and Officer Larkin, Lieutenant John Stokes (Jerry Price) arrives and provides a path to the powerful and emotional conclusion of the 90-minute drama.
If “American Son” is any indication of what’s ahead for GhostLight, the company is worthy of wide-ranging community support. In recruiting Director Boseman, a Columbia College graduate and co-founder and artistic director of Pulse Theatre Chicago, GhostLight continues to expand their ability to present relevant work that highlights the attitudes and opinions at the forefront of discussions about race, policing and interracial relationships. As the mother, whose child is at risk, Latham’s anguish and frustration are ever-present; the kind of intense emotions that can only lead to a darker and more hopeless state. Once the confrontations with Askenaiszer’s Connor are realized, you begin to understand that being the white parent of a biracial child requires an inherent social sensibility and much more depth of understanding than simply showing up at school events. That guidance, and those conceptual observations, are embodied in Price’s straight-talking Lt. Stokes.
GhostLight Theatre’s impressive return is a conversation starter about the topic of race relations in America. Responding to that need, the theatre is hosting Sunday afternoon talkback sessions. “American Son” runs for three more performances Friday, February 18-20 with limited seating availability.
PHOTO|Lauren Mow
THE GHOSTLIGHT THEATRE
presents
AMERICAN SON
104 Hinkley Street
Benton Harbor, Michigan
through February 20, 2022
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