THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mansa Ra’s neatly hopeful IN THE SOUTHERN BREEZE explores the history of violence against Black men

The company of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater’s production of “In the Southern Breeze” by Mansa Ra (photo by David Rauch).

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in the West Village was one of the first Off-Broadway theater companies to return to in-person performance when it unveiled its terrific production of Arturo Luís Soria’s solo show Ni Mi Madre back in September. For its second in-person offering this season, Rattlestick has chosen Mansa Ra’s In the Southern Breeze (which, like, Ni Mi Madre, is also available for consumption via livestream), a play exploring the generations-spanning violence that has been inflicted on Black men in this country (thematically, Mr. Ra’s play has much in common with Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over, which this fall helped jump start Broadway).

The play opens with a lone Black man onstage – although he’s educated and financially stable, he’s nevertheless haunted by the past. As he works himself into an anxiety attack, the scene morphs into a purgatorial netherworld in which we find gathered generations of Black men who have lost their lives at the hands of White men. From here on out, the play unfolds predictably, with each man taking the spotlight to depict how he met his gruesome end. There’s an obvious blueprint that the play follows, which renders its neatly hopeful ending a tad unconvincing. Although there are stretches of undeniably compelling poetry and imagery, I wish the overall conceit was more nuanced and not quite so telegraphed.

Since reopening its doors, Rattlestick has reconfigured its stage so as to maximize the playing area (at the expense of audience access to the restrooms, however). Indeed, In the Southern Breeze is perhaps the most expansively staged production I’ve seen at the intimate venue. Director Christopher D. Betts and his design team have done an admirable job of giving the play a surreal look that compliments the play’s fantasia-like setting. The acting is strong across the five-person cast, particularly Allan K. Washington’s haunting work as the play’s stand-in for the “contemporary” Black man in the play’s bookend scenes.

SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED

IN THE SOUTHERN BREEZE
Off-Broadway, Play
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Through December 12

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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