When the song “ Strange Fruit “ plays with Billie Holiday’s haunting resonance, one is taken to the deep south with the apparitions of dangling bodies from sycamore trees a lullaby of those lynched because their skin was too dark. The play Lynch …Here and Now directed and written by playwright and composer Michaelangelo Davis and co- written by Laurinho Walch takes one into the pathos of lynching, profiling and the rebirth of self identity. This limited run at the Black Box Theater in New York City, a Mecca of ethnicities forging ahead in spite of polarities and disparities , became a platform for this tale to be told.
Willie Lynch is conjured up to discern if he really was a slave owner in the early 1700’s who came to the colony of Virginia in 1712 to share his methods for controlling Black slaves. Portrayed as a gothic, macabre and mentally unstable man by Michaelangelo Davis his cryptic dissertation of strategically controlling the African slaves flows forward with contorted desperation and gleeful madness. From this point the anthology of Lynch’s madness continues in a series of characters chronologically parlayed to institute his separatist and divisive tactics on the descendents of African slaves. An elderly woman enters the stage plodding with the elasticity of dead wood to plead with Willie Lynch and his wife to work in peace. She is contemptuous of the lynching of her husband and the selling of her children by Lynch but sings with praises for a better day. Witty and sarcastic the interplay of the old and young slave as they each discussed the merits of their position to end with the irony of an empty inheritance. The audience was kept from drifting into slumber with compositions from Michalelangelo infused with driving rhythms, syncopated rifts and old fashioned stomping grooves.
The multitude of characters ranged from eccentric, androgynous, ridiculous, pathological, amorous to the sublime. One character dressed in 60’s garb rolls out with the admonishments of vampires but that the really dangerous ones are the ones who suck energy as opposed to blood! Physically demonstrative and acrobatic this character screams for one to beware! Poignant and dynamic was the man who lost his job with his pregnant woman telling him he must leave before Lynch Corporation approaches. Diminished and distraught he confronts his woman with rage and angst as she reels back with sadness, fear, and survival to request that he leave the home. It would be unfair to infer what happens next as your interpretation will lead you to your own conclusions and contemporary definitions of relationships. The ensemble cast went beyond mediocre to mastery to bring the words to life and present entertainment, education and history exciting to capture the attention of the techno generation without one cell phone going off during the show!
The showcase of relationships explore the sexuality and boundaries of individuals and personal sacrifices. The image and stereotypes of African- American men are exposed in their interaction with society and towards one another. A daunting subject to deal with much less display but is done with charisma, energy and love. The bounty of female empowerment is expressed without hesitancy and distinguished celebration. The message is received with the audience dancing at the freedom of celebration of a past to the acceptance of the power to change the present and inspire the future. I do mean dancing as the audience ended the show with a gleeful call and response dancing standing up leaving with an inspired feeling that one change their condition.
If you want to see a play go to Broadway but if you want an experience that infuses talent, storytelling, dancing, and music then you have to see the play Lynch….Here and Now.
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