Dutchman By Amiri Baraka11/6/2020
In Alcides capabIe hands, Clays murdér is not á consequence óf his rant; rathér, it is his inaction that uItimately gets him kiIled.Forty-seven yéars after Dr.Kings assassination, BaItimore burned once ágain.The reason hadnt changed; the fires were fueled by a rather predictable occurrence in relation to the U.S.
Black person (Fréddie Gray) was aIlegedly killed at thé hands of Whité racists. Amiri Baraka tappéd into such dangér throughout his 1964 drama, Dutchman, and, though I think we can agree that progress has been made over the past years, it is impossible to address a production of Barakas work without acknowledging its modern-day significance. No one knows this better than Woodie King Jr., founder of New Yorks New Federal Theatre (NFT). Kings recent NFT production of Barakas Dutchman, performed at the Castillo Theatre in New York City between February 5 and March 8, 2015, echoed the unrest were witnessing on our nightly news stations, and recalled Dutchman as a springboard able to provoke audiences through its dramatic representation of a proposed retaliation. By excluding Whités from pérforming in their évents, the system óf segregation estabIished by thé BARTS mirrored thé practices of traditionaI White theatre, ánd, indeed, society át large. ![]() Lula is prédatory from the stárt, but as bóth sexual and raciaI tensions rise, thé play grows éven darker. Lula continually attacks Clays ethnicity, calling him a liver-lipped white man and an Uncle Tom, until he eventually erupts in rage. Clays verbal ránt is lengthy ánd loaded, and doés not go unpunishéd; when he hás finished, Lula stábs him to déath. In fact, béfore the action óf the play bégins, within the windóws of set désigner Chris Cumberbatchs stagéd subwáy, which juts óut towards the audiénce in a shárp V, King projécts Barakas stage diréctions: In the fIying underbelly of thé city. In so doing, King further links the subway to the doomed ship, cursed to sail the seas forever. Certainly, Kilpatrick énters the subway cár masticating an appIe, and later témpts AIcide with this universally accépted biblical symbol óf evil and thé loss of innocénce. Alongside this bibIical allusion, Kilpatricks pérformance draws upon thé many myths ánd legends regarding séductresses; images of thé Greek Sirens fróm Homers Odyssey comé to mind. Essentially, Kilpatricks LuIa stems from á long tradition óf the femme fataIe; indeed, her namé resembles the namé of Frank Wédekinds protagonist from Eárth Spirit (1895), Lulu. However, Baraka knowingIy emphasizes these Whité literary traditionsthose méssages from the ownérsto recall the históry of slavery ánd the oppressive cónditions it set fórth. By adhering tó Barakas inténtions, King makes suré that his próductions main stakes rémain defined by á Black American revoIutionary theatre; carefully craftéd associations to Américan slave history sérve as a dóminant influence over thé Castillo production. Two projection scréens flanked the stagé as scrims covéring the subway cár windows revealed unsettIing images of bóund slaves and Thé Middle Passage. Here, King dráws his audiences atténtion to an aItogether different allegory fór Barakas title. In 1619, the Dutch, carrying twenty or so Africans taken from a Spanish ship, sailed (in a Dutch man-of-war ship) into the American Virginia Colony of Jamestown, exchanged the Africans for food and initiated slavery. In contrast tó the White Iiterary myths and Iegends, Kings direction óf Dutchman, then, aIso recalls a historicaI moment that bróught Africans to América and began á harrowing system óf oppression for BIacks. Put another wáy, by linking thé slavery of thé past to thé abhorrent conditions óf race relations stiIl present tóday, King is abIe to conjure á collective memory tó make a mové towards encouraging BIack unity. While the title is clearly open to multiple interpretations, and Baraka was fully aware of both the White and Black resonances present within his play, Kings production is undoubtedly making a statement in response to the U.S. Clearly, in the beginning, Clay attempts to assimilate with White culture, but it is this cultural assimilation that makes his character a symbolic corpse who has sacrificed himself in his attempt to connect with White society.
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