#AMIRI BARAKA DUTCHMAN WINDOWS#

King makes clear connections to a slavery of the past through Bill TolesвЂ™s harrowing projections before the start of the play. By adhering to BarakaвЂ™s intentions, King makes sure that his productionвЂ™s main stakes remain defined by a Black American revolutionary theatre carefully crafted associations to American slave history serve as a dominant influence over the Castillo production. However, Baraka knowingly emphasizes these White literary traditions-those messages from the owners-to recall the history of slavery and the oppressive conditions it set forth. If LulaвЂ™s repetitive acts of seduction and murder, reminiscent of Homer and Wedekind, are meant to connect back to the title via the legend of the cursed вЂњFlying Dutchman,вЂќ by faithfully depicting so many links to White literary traditions, King and his cast potentially eclipse DutchmanвЂ™s powerful Black influence and risk criticism for assimilating into the mainstream media the play seeks to subvert. There is a distinct problem here, however. Essentially, KilpatrickвЂ™s Lula stems from a long tradition of the femme fatale indeed, her name resembles the name of Frank WedekindвЂ™s protagonist from Earth Spirit (1895), Lulu. Alongside this biblical allusion, KilpatrickвЂ™s performance draws upon the many myths and legends regarding seductresses images of the Greek Sirens from HomerвЂ™s Odyssey come to mind. Nevertheless, in KingвЂ™s production, Ryan Jillian KilpatrickвЂ™s Lula, in a blonde wig and white, pointy-nosed Venetian mask, is the oppressive force it is her actions towards Michael AlcideвЂ™s Clay, along with the suggestion that she will repeatedly kill again, that more accurately aligns itself with the curse of вЂњthe Flying Dutchman.вЂќ Certainly, Kilpatrick enters the subway car masticating an apple, and later tempts Alcide with this universally accepted biblical symbol of evil and the loss of innocence. The subway heaped in modern myth.вЂќ In so doing, King further links the subway to the doomed ship, cursed to sail the seas forever. Steaming hot, and summer on top, outside.

#AMIRI BARAKA DUTCHMAN WINDOWS#

In fact, before the action of the play begins, within the windows of set designer Chris CumberbatchвЂ™s staged subway, which juts out towards the audience in a sharp вЂњV,вЂќ King projects BarakaвЂ™s stage directions: вЂњ In the flying underbelly of the city. The play is said to be influenced by the myth of вЂњthe Flying Dutchman,вЂќ and, at first glance, KingвЂ™s stage choices fit this allegory. ClayвЂ™s verbal rant is lengthy and loaded, and does not go unpunished when he has finished, Lula stabs him to death. Lula continually attacks ClayвЂ™s ethnicity, calling him a вЂњliver-lipped white manвЂќ and an вЂњUncle Tom,вЂќ until he eventually erupts in rage. Lula is predatory from the start, but as both sexual and racial tensions rise, the play grows even darker. The story in question pits a twenty-year-old Black man (Clay) against a thirty-year-old White woman (Lula) in a New York subway in the 1960s. For Castillo, King followed suit, employing an all-Black cast to reenact the horror story Baraka penned over fifty years ago. By excluding Whites from performing in their events, the system of segregation established by the BARTS mirrored the practices of traditional White theatre, and, indeed, society at large. Though Dutchman first premiered in March of 1964 for Cherry Lane Theatre, KingвЂ™s production more accurately aligns itself with the 1965 performances produced by BarakaвЂ™s own Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BARTS) in Harlem. KingвЂ™s recent NFT production of BarakaвЂ™s Dutchman, performed at the Castillo Theatre in New York City between February 5 and March 8, 2015, echoed the unrest weвЂ™re witnessing on our nightly news stations, and recalled Dutchman as a springboard able to provoke audiences through its dramatic representation of a proposed retaliation. No one knows this better than Woodie King Jr., founder of New YorkвЂ™s New Federal Theatre (NFT). Amiri Baraka tapped into such danger throughout his 1964 drama, Dutchman, and, though I think we can agree that progress has been made over the past years, it is impossible to address a production of BarakaвЂ™s work without acknowledging its modern-day significance. racial climate: a Black person (Freddie Gray) was allegedly killed at the hands of White racists. The reason hadnвЂ™t changed the fires were fueled by a rather predictable occurrence in relation to the U.S. KingвЂ™s assassination, Baltimore burned once again. This April, I watched history repeat itself.

Amiri baraka dutchman