Review: AN OCTOROON Takes Race Relations down the Rabbit Hole

Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; dramaturgs, Ramona Ostrowski and Haley Fluke; directed by Summer L. Williams; scenic design, Justin and Christopher Swader; costume design, Amanda Mujica; lighting design, Christopher Brusberg; sound design, David Wilson; props design, Anita Shriver; projection design, Jonathan Carr; stage manager, Julie Lagevin

Cast:

BJJ, George, M'Closky, Brandon Green; Playwright, Wahnotee, LaFouche, Brooks Reeves; Assistant, Pete, Paul, Harsh Gagoomal; Zoe, Shawna M. James; Dora, Bridgette Hayes; Minnie, Elle Borders; Dido, Obehi Janice; Grace, Amelia Lumpkin; Br'er Rabbit, Ratts, Kadajh Bennett

Performances and Tickets:

Presented by Company One Theatre and ArtsEmerson, now through February 27, Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre at the Emerson/Paramount Center, 555 Washington Street, Boston; tickets are $25-35 and are available online at www.artsemerson.org or by calling 617-824-8400

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has assaulted the fourth wall and countless racial stereotypes in his funny and audacious new play AN OCTOROON. Adapted from an 1859 melodrama titled The Octoroon by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault, Jenkins' piece weaves a biting contemporary narrative within Boucicault's stock storytelling to turn familiar antebellum tropes into jarring racial commentaries. Imagine Gone with the Wind down the rabbit hole and you get the idea.

In fact, it is a silent and magical Br'er Rabbit (Kadahj Bennett) who leads the audience into the fractured world of Terrebonne, the plantation where fates are twisted and caricatures are turned on their ears. Borrowed from African American folklore and stories like Uncle Remus, Br'er Rabbit here isn't so much the wily indentured trickster eluding the grasp of authorities as he is the Master of Ceremonies creating his own freedom tale.

In AN OCTOROON, that tale finds the deceased plantation owner's illegitimate daughter Zoe (Shawna M. James) suddenly on the auction block as a slave. Even though Zoe passes for white and had lived in the main house with her father, the fact that her mother was a slave and she is one-eighth black now puts her fate in the hands of two sworn enemies: George (Brandon Green), the previous owner's worldly nephew who loves Zoe but is forbidden to marry her because of her lineage, and M'Closky (Green again), a sadistic upstart plantation owner who can have Zoe if he buys her as a slave.

The fact that Green is a black actor who plays the melodrama's dueling hero and villain in white face only adds to the poignancy of AN OCTOROON. Not only are bitter rivals from the past at war with each other over race and power; but individuals even today still grapple with conflicts within themselves.

AN OCTOROON does run long. Jenkins' multi-scene framing device that includes Green taking on BJJ himself as the "angry black playwright" extends Boucicault's original five-act melodrama to almost three hours. Exposition is thick, and perhaps one too many plot twists from the 1859 original are left intact. Still, there are numerous pleasures to be had, chief among them the multiple ways in which the exceptional cast lampoons the melodrama's tired dialog and now seemingly silly clichés.

Green switches effortlessly between BJJ, George and M'Closky - smartly sarcastic as the playwright, then alternating sometimes instantaneously between heroic chest pumps and villainous moustache twirling. His climactic duel between his melodramatic alter egos is a comic sight to behold. Brooks Reeves is equally adept as the ill-tempered Irish playwright and actor commissioned into playing the parts of the loyal Indian companion Wahnotee and the slimy slave trader LaFouche. Harsh Gagoomal, deadpan funny as BJJ's harried assistant in the framing scenes, is sweet and quietly strong as the young slave Paul and suitably excitable as the shuffling old retainer Pete.

James is the perfect damsel in distress as Zoe, vulnerable yet gutsy, hopeless yet honorable. Bridgette Hayes as the rich Southern Belle Dora is her polar opposite, flighty, calculating, shallow and syrupy. As the chattering house slaves Minnie and Dido, Elle Borders and Obehi Janice inject a hilarious contemporary snap to their gossip. Their rebellious hopes and dreams are barely contained beneath their subservient demeanor. Their contempt is also not lost on the field slave Grace (Amelia Lumpkin), whose measured performance suits her character's name.

AN OCTOROON straddles two worlds but also bridges them smartly. Performances and design elements all work in tandem to infuse the antebellum South with a sharp present day edge. The humor is as scathingly funny as the serious moments are gut-wrenching. Through Jenkins' insightful but also introspective eye, we see that there is still much work to be done. What's important is to keep writing one's own story.

PHOTOS BY PAUL FOX: Brandon Green as BJJ and Brooks Reeves as the Playwright; Kadahj Bennett as Br'er Rabbit; Bridgette Hayes as Dora and Brandon Green as George; Obehi Janice as Dido and Elle Borders as Minnie; the cast of AN OCTOROON