Review: Gwydion Theatre's POR'KNOCKERS at Greenhouse Theater Center

Gwydion Theatre Company begins their 4th season in Chicago by putting political ideals to the test with a very tangible act in Por’Knockers, a 1995 political satire written by Lynn Nottage and directed by Makari Robinson-McNeese. 

We meet five people who are part of the People’s Diasporatic Party: the de-facto leader Kwami (Kevin Aoussou), the tough Ahmed (Joseph Percy), the paranoid James (Dontaye Albert), the academic Tamara (Justice Ford), and the white boy Lewis (Grayson Kennedy). We meet them as they are anxious but ready to go out to enact a plan: they’re blowing a federal building up as a defiant act of protest against the government in an attempt to rectify its long history with violent systems of oppression, capitalism, patriarchy, etc. But their terrorist act has unintended (or inevitable) consequences that the ragtag group of political zealots must deal with — and we spend the majority of the show listening to them discuss, debate, and argue their new course of action. 

Understandably, the characters are stressed, the dialogue frenzied. Holed up in an East New York apartment and dressed in corporate business attire, the cast does an excellent job capturing the range of emotions and behaviors one might expect in this situation — anxiety, fear, deflecting humor, nervous drinking, unending paranoia. They play off each other naturally as the tension builds and disagreements come to a head. Race and gender dynamics within the group are repeatedly brought up — with Lewis being accused of his commitment to the cause without a personal stake and multiple acknowledgments of “Brothers…and Sister” as Tamara’s status as the only woman in the room is the exception, not the norm. As they argue about whether to call to take responsibility for their action, how the consequences change the calculations, who is taking the lead, and what their demands even are, it becomes clear they don’t really know why they did what they did. The actors drive the story forward with the intensity of their acting and strong execution of the characters' fervor for liberation, freedom, and equality. 

Throughout the show, there are glimpses of Lance (Jimmie Rogers III), a por’knocker searching for gold in the rain forests, with Kwami sometimes narrating over his movements. As he weaves in and out of the jungle and through the room, he spends most of the show sitting off to the side. The threads between the por’knocker and the revolutionary sect are connected — as James acknowledges in a brief fourth wall break — but it’s not clear exactly how, which is more a note about Lynn Nottage’s writing than Jimmie Rogers III’s acting. As a result, Lance’s appearances feel abstract and ungrounded, even as viewers can feel its significance and try their best to make sense of the two. You’ll probably leave the show with many thoughts and deep reflections on how abstract political theories manifest — but it’s also likely you’ll leave wishing for a more explicit explanation of the significance of the por’knocker. 

There’s a lot of respect and credit that goes to Grayson Kennedy as Artistic Director and Gwydion Theatre for choosing this play instead of one of Nottage’s Pulitzer-winning plays. The show was written before Oklahoma City and 9/11, but this piece satirizing ideological acts has certainly taken a different tone since its conception — something that also muddied the show’s initial reception in 1995. To stage it on the 25-year anniversary of 9/11 is as much of a political statement as the show itself, and it also emphasizes the everyday frustration people feel with the government and the dire reality of how much things have changed in the past 30 years as acts of terror once able to be satirized are the unfortunate reality of our everyday lives. As things are increasingly politicized and people are increasingly radicalized, the line between symbolic acts with no strategy behind them and actual meaningful acts of protest is an increasingly important line — and this production boldly brings that question to the relevant forefront.  

Por’Knockers plays at the Greenhouse Theater’s Studio 44 through October 4. 

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