Second Thought Theatre always keeps you guessing. They never repeat themselves. A gifted pianist haunted by the ghost of his sister. A family of men who are supposedly evolved when it comes to gender equality. A devoted couple who find a psychotropic that wields uncontrolled empathy. A hip-hop version of Much Ado About Nothing. A teenage religious zealot who terrifies students and faculty, at an upscale private school. And so on. Their astonishing litany is exhilarating. Second Thought wants to challenge, engage, terrify, amuse, appall, delight. They want drag us down one rabbit hole after another, and the results are a grace to those who cherish theatre.
Mlima is a revered, magnificent elephant. He addresses us directly, discussing his wise grandmother and her advice. He describes his culture and community. Next we see poachers stalking Mlima. They’re the kind of hunters who would use a sledgehammer to kill a flea. They murder Mlima, though they realize his austerity will make fencing his ivory tusks very difficult. What follows is a series of transactions, characterized by shadiness, corruption, bribery and fear. Mlima’s ghost is there for each step, bearing witness to the desecration of his body. Even the most avaricious among the smugglers, officials, curators and seafaring captains respect Mlima, a majestic pachyderm that is elder to them all. They understand that by trading in his ill-gotten tusks, they are jarring the karmic balance, and inviting calamity and chaos. In the final sequence, when the tusks are unveiled in the home of wealthy, insipid collectors (with no reverence for the exquisite beast) a cry of infinite grief erupts.
Written by Lynn Nottage, Mlima’s Tale invites us into a realm of phenomenal, canny worship. The elements (such as rain and teeming nightfall) are characters too, in a cosmos without the noise of industry and urban sprawl. The music provided by Nigel Newton is precise and evocative, with its bony percussion and eerie notes. What might have been a precious narrative from another country, becomes a stunning, simple indictment of those obsessed with acquisition and opulence. Nottage mixes gravity and humor, with a savvy eye to the egregious audacity of humanity. Mlima’s Tale has a cunning for grasping forces like awe, death, adoration and insolence and making them palpable in the midst of of homosapien folly.
I got this review out far too late, and I am an oaf.
Second Thought Theatre presented Mlima’s Tale that closed March 14th, 2020. 3400 Blackburn St, Dallas, Texas 75219. (866) 811-4111. secondthoughttheatre.com