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While watching
Blue Door, I couldn’t help but think about
Charles Dickens’
A
Christmas Carol. In the latter, the curmudgeon, Ebenezer Scrooge, needed help from ghostly nocturnal visitors to see how his stinginess hurt his employees and their families. In
Blue Door, Lewis’ ghosts helped him see how he was hurting himself by denying the mortifying experiences of generations of his own African-American ancestors. Those experiences gave painful birth to his world, where he could chose to join a white-dominated social and academic world.
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Bruce A. Young as Lewis, a man searching for his identity in Blue Door
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There are only 2 actors in
Tanya Barfield’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated
Blue Door. For the first, Lewis (Bruce A. Young), it's a night of insomnia. He explains his situation directly to the audience. His white wife of 25 years has just left him, ostensibly because he has no interest in joining the Million Man March. This seems to be her way of saying that she no longer wants to live with a man who was unaware of himself and his own cultural origins.
Lewis has earned a PhD in mathematics and philosophy, is a professor, and has written a book,
Mathematics and the Repudiation of Time. I suppose his life could be titled, Mathematics and the Suppression of Family Memory. In any event, his comfort zone includes classrooms, a few hours at faculty parties, and being at home with a white wife. The intimate stage showed his home filled with symbols of erudite culture: bookcases, oriental carpet, leather chair, and a tea pot. Throughout the play Lewis wore a three piece suit – and he was at home in the middle of the night! He tells us that his comfort zone does not included nature trips with his wife, suggesting that they have had a narrow choice of life activities, possibly another reason for her departure.
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Lindsay Smiling as Jesse in Blue Door
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During the night Lewis is visited by ghosts of three of his relatives, all played by
Lindsay Smiling. Between the two actors Mr. Smiling may have the more desirable role, since he plays 3 male characters, and channels several other male and female characters. He changes characters by changing hats and jackets, vocabularies and accents.
Simon is Lewis’ great grandfather, the child of a slave woman born in Africa, from which she brought a belief that painting a door frame blue prevents evil from entering. The young Simon was taught to read by a white master who also sexually abused the boy, showing us that every person has the potential for both good and evil. Simon shows intelligence and a mastery of reading and mathematics even though these were forbidden by law for a slave. This also hints at the genetic source of Lewis’ mathematical talent.
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Lewis talks with his great grandfather, Simon, born a slave
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Simon lives to be 103 years old, long enough to be part of the first ten years of Lewis’ life. Simon’s son Jesse lived after slaves were legally freed, but he spends much of his life in prison on racially-motivated trumped up charges. Jesse’s son, Charles, had two sons: Lewis and Rex. Lewis remembers Charles as an abusive, jobless, drinker, but Rex reminds Lewis that their father was living with the memory of 10¢ picture post cards of their father's lynching. Mr. Smiling played a witty, Ebonics-laced Rex, a deceased drug addict who admitts to being a disappointment to Charles. The conversation between Rex and Lewis illustrates Lewis’ denial that Charles planted the seeds that grew into Lewis' academic achievements and rejection of the victim mentality.
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The ghost of Lewis' brother Rex confronts him
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The physical size of
Mr. Young and his defiant stance make a good balance for
Mr.
Smiling’s nimble character changes. Although the images the characters conjure up in her play are often brutal,
Ms. Barfield injects equal parts of humor, and the audience had a few belly laughs. A mosaic of screens behind the stage displayed motion videos that reinforced the actors’ images.
Mr. Smiling also has some lovely songs, with lyrics by
Ms. Barfield, to reflect the times and thoughts of his characters, including one
African song of Simon’s mother.
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Bruce A. Young and Lindsay Smiling on stage in Blue Door
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Lewis experiences a classroom episode with a Black student that results in Lewis losing his cool and using the “N” word. My companion and I disagreed on whether the student is an angry kid who bates his Uncle Tom professor, or whether Lewis’ mindset makes him hear what he wants to hear in the exchange. In the end, Lewis’ academic Dean validates the departed wife’s belief that Lewis has some unresolved demons and puts him on sabbatical.
Victory Gardens Biograph selected an excellent play for
Black History Month. Do come to see for yourself whether the ghostly visits made a difference for Lewis. Unlike the Dickens story, there is no Ghost of the Future so Lewis will have to create his own.
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Tanya Barfield is the Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright of Blue Door
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Blue Door
is at
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater through February 28, 2010.
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater
2433 N. Lincoln Ave Chicago 60614
Box Office Hours
Tues-Sat 12pm-8 pm
Sun 12 pm -4 pm
773-871-3000
See the
Chicago Splash
Magazine calendar for additional ticketing information.
Photos: Courtesy of Victory Gardens Biograph Theater
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