Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

Da’Mon Vann and Peter Macon in “Sonny’s Blues.” Photo by Clayton Lord.

An exhilarating theatre experience, Sonny’s Blues is the latest production of the Word for Word Performing Arts Company, in association with the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Performances continue through March 2nd, 2008.

“Sonny’s Blues” was written by James Baldwin, America’s native son, novelist and essayist whom Michael Ondaatje called “our 20th century artist-saint.” This story, every word of which is performed on the stage, is an illustration of Baldwin’s keeping the English language “ungated” in Toni Morrison’s view, and accessible to people of color. Baldwin’s prose is honest, and searing in its struggle to illuminate the paradox of world progress on the one hand, and the dehumanization of African-Americans and other oppressed groups on the other.

Word for Word is a writer’s dream, an ensemble theatre company which performs the story just as it was written originally — every word, every scene — yet infuses it with creativity and imagination. The Baldwin tale is about two brothers growing up in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the middle of the 20th century. The older one is a war veteran, teaches school and works to raise a family. The younger brother struggles to find himself and become a musician, a jazz pianist, in the years after the second world war.

James Baldwin’s prose comes alive with its powerful imagery — vivid killing streets of our childhood…looking for light and air but encircled by disaster…bringing him back to the danger he almost died trying to escape…the darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about, what they come from, what they fear…the first time I ever saw my mother look old…it was like living with a sound and not a person…fact that I had held silence for so long. His words fairly dance from the music and the poetry contained within.

When you add Margo Hall’s first-rate directing and the performances of her talented actors, along with Marcus Shelby’s original musical score, you have a soaring theatrical experience.

Peter Mason plays Brother, Da’Mon Vann is Sonny, Margarette Robinson is Mama, and Allison Payne plays Isabel (Brother’s wife). Majahid Abdul-Rashid is Father and Robert Hampton plays Sonny’s friend. Appreciation to Lisa Dent for set/props design, Laura Hazlett for costume design, and Tom Ontiveros for lighting design.

“Word for Word” is a program of the Z Space Studio. Info can be found at www.zspace.org. The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre site is www.lhtsf.org.