April 17, 2005

Drop whatever you're doing and go see Michelle Matlock in *The Mammy Project*
by Liza Sabater

Performance Space 122 > Performance Page

There was an interesting visual note at the beginning of this play --the words "for colored girls ..." appeared on the screen. I immediately sucked some air. For colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf :a choreopoem has never been a favorite show of mine; although I think that as a poem, it is one of the most beautiful pieces of US literature. I guess I love the book but hate the movie. So when I read that bit on the screen, I immediately panicked. UGH! It's another one of those badly coreographed performance art thingies, I thought.

Boy, was I in for a pleasant surprise. This is one of the most provocative, well acted and original "race" plays I've seen in a long time.

It is shocking to hear that as late as 1998, the Quaker Oats company was holding auditions for Aunt Jemima. It was her struggle against type-casting --and yes, that one invitation to audition for the role of Aunt Jemima herself-- that sparked the fire for The Mammy Project.

This show, like many off-off Broadway shows, could have easily fallen into the trap of become a long-winded rant or an exercise in self-pity. The Mammy Project is neither. Ms. Matlock's strenght lies not only in her acting, singing and dancing but on her ability to deconstruct with her whole body the oversimplification of the ideas of racism and prejudice; and to expose them as physical realities bourne of the complexity of human relations.

There are gems of moments all through out the show --and I am SO SORRY I EFFED UP THE PODCASTING, ARGH! I could kick myself because just by listening her you'd get how she uses her voice to convey that complexity. My two favorite moments in the play are the powerfully simple "The Auction Block" (which was co-written with Joan Evans) and the poliphonic remonstrations of "Colored People Day Protest". Ms. Matlock is an actor in the classical sense of the word and these two scenes prove it. She ought to be doing Shakespeare. Lots of it. At the Royal or the Public. Actually, at both.

Matlock uses her voice to convey how much more deeper and problematic is the reality of Nancy Green, a working class free slave vs. Aunt Jemima, the corporate product vs. Nancy "Aunt Jemima" Green, the racist ennabler. The writing is also superb because it weaves ideas in such a way that it's not until you've fallen in the web that you get the immensity of the message. Like the idea that Nancy Green's decision to become Aunt Jemima was bourne out of her reality as a free-slave looking for a life of comfort in a post-abolition United States is provocative. Like the possibility that class has the Booker T. Washington's of the world in a total disconnect with the Nancy Green's of the world. Or the idea that Aunt Jemima not only got a perm but a talk show and a book club. Ouch!

Racism is not the root of all evils in The Mammy Project. What is interesting to see in Ms. Matlock acting choices is that Aunt Jemima's body is place of desire --not for black women, not for blackness, not even for slavery perse. Aunt Jemima is a symbol of the wealth and power of a time past. So when you get upper class negroes denouncing her, you can see how problematic it is to call Nancy "Aunt Jemima" Green an ennabler of racist America.

Because, in the end, underneath all the labels and stereotypes, there was a human being there, a whole woman. In trying to find her and give Nancy Green and all the other characters of her story a voice and a human face, Matlock finds compassion for the demons that haunted her all her life.

The word demon has an interesting etymology. In Latin, daemon meant spirit and in Greek, daimon was a divine power. Not gods, daemons were spirits, full of knowledge, that functioned as the inner voice of wisdom and reason of men. They were humanity's keepers and guardian angels. They became more important than the gods themselves because they were closer to humanity and more understanding of their suffering and foibles.

The Mammy Project proves how an inner daemon can be a font of wisdom, self-knowledge and power. You will be intellectually provoked by Michelle Matlock's wit, politically afire by the shrewd use of her craft for commentary but, more importantly, you will be moved to laughter and tears by the deep level of commitment and compassion Michelle Matlock has to the daemons she seeks to lay to rest. It's an amazing process to witness. So go now, run and see this show.

Michelle Matlock's
The Mammy Project
April 14 - 24
Post-show reception: April 14
Thursday - Saturday, 8 p.m.
Sun. at 5 p.m.
$15/$10 for SPPPAA members

Posted by Liza Sabater in Civil Rights, Class, Comedy, Empire, Events, New York City, Performance, Race, Racism, Theater
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