Clay, a handsome, well-dressed, intelligent African American man is riding the subway (alive with chaotic jumble of graffiti) when Lula makes brief eye contact with him, through a window. At the next stop, she enters the train, and starts talking to Clay. They are alone. She squats like a child on the passenger seat. She is at once startling and erotic and poisonous. She immediately starts in, accusing him of ogling and flirtation. She’s confrontational, but she craves his advances, or insults him. It’s obvious he’s been nothing but a gentleman. There’s a vague, disparaging hubris to her affect, yet also primal in her spare, dishy, emerald dress. She’s seducing him, while throwing out all kinds of mixed signals. She goads him without mercy, spilling racist invective, accusing him of pretentiousness and cowardice.
They spar for awhile, as Lula drags him by the necktie then shoves him away. During a blackout, some guys board the train and settle in. This near-brawl between Clay and Lula only gets louder and more disturbing. The men (scattered throughout the train) ignore what’s going on right beneath their noses, like watching TV on the sofa while your house burns. She keeps coming on to Clay, climbing on him. He keeps cursing her to get the hell off. Eventually Clay and Lula are locked in sexual contact, managing while staying mostly clothed. Then something catastrophic happens.
From the moment Lula boards the train and finds Clay, she has one goal. She wants him to engage. To catch him off-guard. She degrades and confuses him, whether by temptation or verbal abuse, or chattering monologues that are nonsensical, grim, or both. Like Jerry in The Zoo Story her dialogue is frantic, sometimes but dominant. One difference is that Lula makes a point of bullying Clay from square one. Her behavior is egregious. It’s obvious she’s neither Clay’s spiritual nor intellectual equal. And she flaunts it, confident she can defy the social order without reprisal. The bout was fixed before the first bell.
Joey Folsom and the brave artists who throw in their caps with The Classics Theatre Project, have proved, once again, that old or new, American Theatre still has the power to astonish. To grip and overwhelm. Amiri Baraka, a preeminent poet of the American Literary Canon, released the notorious Dutchman in 1964. Many playwrights began as poets, but the brilliant Mr. Baraka has crafted a script that fuses dialogue and verse seamlessly. The sensibility is apparent, not overshadowed by music of language. Brentom (Chuck) Jackson and Rhonda Sue Rose bring biting audacity and fearless rage to Clay and Lula. Dutchman is an allegory of broken, desolate racism, to be sure, but as it unfolds, you will be swallowed in the moment.
The Classics Theatre Project presents Dutchman, directed by Dennis Raveneau. Playing November 11th-26th, 2022. 1121 1st Avenue, Dallas Texas 75210. 214- 923-3619. theclassics theatreproject.com