THE 1041C Theater Reviews

Twas a sweet deal indeed to go see a show at Lincoln Center without paying. Also, I got to wear a white suit jacket and it was fly as hell. But I’m actually going to talk about the play. To be honest, I was very confused at the beginning of this play, because, for whatever reason, I was under the impression that it was going to be an opera. It took me about 5 minutes to realize that it was not. I’m quick, I know.

The style of acting one has to commit to on stage is very different from the style that one would go with on film. Sometimes, the stage-style bothers me, because it often times involves over-acting. This was not the case at all. From the very get-go, I was immediately sucked into the play. The two men who started the play were both hilarious from the start. I thought one of them looked like Mos Def, and I spent the entirety of the first act wondering to myself, “Damn, is that Mos Def? I think that might be Mos Def..” (Spoiler alert, it was Mos Def. Yahoo!!) The chemistry between the two men was always funny (until the end, of course, but I’ll get to that later) and I found myself liking each and every character. This doesn’t mean that all the characters were necessarily nice, it just meant that the characters were well played. For example, Thomas Jefferson was kind of rude and screwed over Toussaint L’Ouverture, but I liked the character. He was an essential part of the play. Everyone played their roles.

Overall, I thought the direction was decent. My only problem was how the scenes changed. Action could be happening on one side of the stage, and then the setting would change to another country, and the lights would go off on one side of the stage, and then go on on the opposite side. And Napoleon would be in a tub or something. Perhaps that has more to do with the size of the stage, though. Other than that, everything was fine. The blocking and movement of the actors always seemed natural and appropriate. The pacing of each scene was smooth (never too fast, never too slow).

The theatre itself was rather nice. There were seats surrounding the stage (I’ve performed in a theatre like this before, the Westchester Broadway Theatre. It’s great to be able to play to all sides of the stage). The audience was alive, and laughed at all the jokes, which is always good. It’s almost as bad to be in an audience that doesn’t “get it” as it is to be performing to one. Like I said earlier, the stage seemed a little bit small, until the “white spaces” opened up. I’m not sure how much larger the stage actually got, but once it happened, everything looked so much more open. So mission accomplished by the set design team. The set pieces were all fitting for the time period, as well as the costumes. They all matched each other (although not necessarily in color, more in design). The lead man always had the most vibrant colors to wear, which brought nice attention to him, and really made him stand out.

(By the way, I spent all of Act II geeking out about Mos Def.)

My only comments on the lighting are one two things that happened at the end. To be honest, I did not take note at all of the lighting throughout most of the play. But when the white spaces opened, everything became so much brighter, and I thought it was brilliant. It really helped me as an audience member identify with the fear and wonder that Lewis felt when he went to explore the newly purchased Louisiana territory. My other lighting note involved the big American flag. The whole stage was bright again, but this time with red, white and blue. I felt the impending doom that Jacques Cornet was about to understand (because I knew what actually happened in history, unlike the character).

The humor and wit of the play carried nicely throughout, until the very end, when things took a serious turn. I had no idea that it was going to end in such a way. The pivotal in which Mos Def turns in his master was absolutely heartbreaking for me. You could really see the relationship that they once had in one scene, and then the next, it was gone. When Cornet vanished for a period of time, he had no idea that his world would be turned entirely upside down.

Just before the play ended, I thought to myself, “Wow, I really liked this play.” But by the end, I thought to myself, “Wow, I really loved this play.”