TheaterWorks reopens with American Son

American Son

By Christopher Demos-Brown

Directed by Ron Ruggiero 

With Ami Brabson, Michael Genet, Tony Crane, and John Ford-Dunker

TheaterWorks

233 Pearl Street, Hartford CT

Oct.18-Nov.23. 2019

Review: Edmond Chibeau

After significant renovations TheaterWorks Hartford open with a killer script and a killer production.  Director/Producer Ron Ruggiero chose American Son by Christopher Demos-Brown to introduce the new theater

Does it make a difference what ethnicity, gender, or color a person is when they confront bureaucratic authority.

Most Americans would say yes, but would have a difficult time explaining how the differences extend out into the larger society.

In plays about social issues we are often faced with a pastiche of anecdotal incidents that point in a general direction, but don’t exactly add up to a coherent whole.

Writer, Christopher Demos-Brown, sets up a dichotomy and then confounds that dichotomy by pointing out all of the blendings, heterogeneities and halfway measures that are difficult to separate onto on side or the other. The problems remain alive in our conscious, but unsolved in our society.

The last lime of the play, “I can’t breathe” leaves us wondering how police treatment is different on different sides of the line of privilege. It also leaves us wondering about the culture of Staten Island in New York where, “I can’t breathe” were the last words of Eric Garner, a black man who was being arrested for selling cigarettes in the street. On the surface the play takes place in Florida. It has nothing to do with the incident on Statin Island. But underneath the death on Staten Island is an objective correlative of the socio-poetic themes of the play. 

The line would seem too pat if it weren’t a dead-on-accurate quotation of the temper of the times in which we live.

The plot twists and reversals, which I won/t reveal here, are thought provoking and about issues that all people must face but are especially salient in 21st Century America.

 

American Son at the newly renovated TheatreWorks has the writing directing and acting talent to make it all work. This production takes the time to let the premise run its course. Rob Ruggiero directs this production to a T

The set by Brian Prather is wonderful to look at, including the mirror-writing on the door to the office. But more importantly the set is motivated by the script and helps the actors motivate, not only their movement, but the way the voice individual lines,

The new facility is an experience! The gallery for hanging graphics, the lounge, the whole vibe of the space is aesthetically exhilarating.

You should check it out.