*SPOILER ALERT*
*TRIGGER WARNING*
Preface:
I am white. Like the writer of this play. I support black lives matter, but I fully acknowledge that I am 120% limited in my understanding of what it is like to be a person of color in America. I write this in support of my friends of color and with the greatest love and respect.
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The staging of “American Son” by Kenny Leon was smart. You immediately see the stunning set and are drawn in watching the rain through the windows. The lighting crashes reflected off the mirror-like windows are striking; they keep you in the moment.
As the sound of rain starts off the show, you see Kerry Washington waiting, patiently for as long as she can. By the end of the play we find out what she is waiting for: her son Jamal, who is never coming back.
The play is a tear-jerker at the end, but the beginning and middle focus clearly on America exploring the opposite sides of the coin in the Black Lives Vs. Blue Lives Matter conflict. He does this by having two of the cops in the show be of color. Also, by having an interracial couple arguing over the style in which they think their son Jamal should have been raised.
Kerry Washington lives in her moments and chews up this role. (I hope she has a voice and speech coach, because her work has to be taxing.)
In the performance I saw, the understudy for Steven Pasquale (Brian Avers) really held his own. He is a big personality and draws your attention to the stage, but his large presence worked against him during some of the more tender moments created by Washington, when he stole the focus from the atmosphere she created.
Performance-wise. Jeremy Jordan is the big shocker. He’s natural, to the point, doesn’t make a meal out of every moment, and just relaxes and eases himself into his role. It’s commendable. In fact, the whole play is commendable for finding a delicately balanced and nuanced point of view that reveals how the divide is not as clear cut as it seems and remind us that the conflict isn’t getting better.
The play homes in on the uncomfortable truth that Jamals father was white and he does not understand that he and his son live in different worlds. He raised him to be in his eyes “the most genuine, upright, upstanding person”, but what his father struggles to grapple with throughout the play is that America only see’s the pigment of Jamals skin passed down by his mother (Washington), and the ugly truth is…if your skin is of a darker tone, “There is no American dream for you.” When you’re stopped by a cop, (this sickens me) it helps to be white. My hope is that this show inspires us to change that.
At the show’s end we learn that the cop stopped the car because one of Jamal’s friends was wanted for drug charges. Police followed the car as they picked up a “dime bag” of pot, then stopped the vehicle.
This leads us to ask, WHY IS THIS STILL A THING? Why is marijuana considered so dangerous? And WHY do my white friends and I get slaps on the wrist for marijuana when people of color die for it or end up living behind bars?
My hands started trembling as I felt the news of Jamal’s death coming. And I found it outrageous that a marijuana bust and a “SHOOT COPS” bumper sticker would lead to his demise. Jamal was struck in the head by a stray bullet that ricochet off the car right into Jamals forehead from a cop of color who felt surrounded as the 3 men had stepped out of the car. Jamal himself had just put his hands on the car and was obviously hoping for a peaceful resolution.
(As a white man, I do not fear getting stopped by a cop, but I cannot imagine what that is like as a person of color…America is not that far removed from the 1800’s or the 1960’s, wake up people.)
Devastating and real, the play offers a window into the lives of “others” and makes them more than a passing face. It presents them as people in front of you just like yourself. And you grieve with a mother who is about to face the toughest loss of her life in a world where privileged white folks will never share or even understand her worries. No matter how many times Jeremy Jordan’s character says “I Understand.”
We just don’t.
The most heartbreaking and smartest moment by writer Christopher Demos-Brown was the father, after finding out his son was dead, started saying “I can’t breathe” echoing the final words of Eric Garner, may he rest in peace. This along with Washington screaming “No!”, the car appearing in the background…thunder blaring, and the cop of color saying I’m sorry for your loss, brings the show to a cacophony of sound and pain as it closes. As it closes it opens up the eyes of those audience members who have just had a glimpse into America’s reality. So, what are we going to do about it?
Written by Jacob Sundlie.
