cover art by Kenneth Leslie
"...this often funny but deeply serious
trial...
Using the combative rhetoric of a trial, Ms Leslie lays out an argument that if
black people do not explore their own history, or if they replace the reality
with film and television images, they will lose the strength that has allowed
them to survive in a hostile world...Ms Leslie, whose language is touched by a
poetic gift, knows when to stop arguing and turn her case over to exploitation
of several deeply imagined characters.
...turns the placid figure of the familiar old servant into an angel of
salvation as, more with chants of prayer and snatches of song than with
sentences, Mammy Louise summons up, and transforms herself into, the spirit of
survival, the soul of hope that can take sustenance even from despair and that
accounts for the fact that blacks could make it out of slavery as people of
amazing integrity. This is one of those embodiments of emotion and idea in
theater that remind you how reasonable the Greeks were when they said a god
emerged from a play and could be sensed in their midst."
D J R Bruckner, The New York Times
"...a lightly rollicking vehicle of
wit, humor and history."
Rohan B Preston, Chicago Tribune
"The outcome of the trial onstage is a
foregone conclusion...
But none of that prepares you for how much dramatic punch Leslie's play packs in
the end...
...Leslie has packed her script with enough bright humor...and the harrowing
finale more than rewards..."
Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Examiner
originally produced by E T A Creative Arts Foundation Inc,Chicago
6 F, 1 M
I S B N: 0-88145-203-3, $8.95