Micro Review: Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment
out of the comments/into the light
Posted by: Lisa Radon on Sep 06, 2009 at 09:00AM
2 Comments
Our Editor-in-chief Randy Gragg wrote following micro review of The Shipment at PICA’s TBA:09 Festival in the comments on another Culturephile post. I decided to let it get some air in its own post:
Randy: FYI, Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment stands among my top 5, maybe #1, TBA experiences ever. This Pullman-raised, Korean playwright’s exploration of racial stereotypes was like watching the love-child of Michael Jordan and Bill T. Jones do triple lutzes through an Iraqi minefield for a backboard-shattering reverse dunk. Never have I laughed so hard while squirming so uncomfortably my own stews (or, appropos of Douglas Scott Streeter’s opening monologue, “poop pile”) of white, liberal self-denial. From the opening dance to to a shining acapella “spiritual” of modern black life to the final comedy of manners, it was as polished as anything I’ve ever seen at TBA and dangerous as a razor.
Thanks for giving this more light. I saw it yesterday and actually complimented Randy on it when I happened to run in to him far away from TBA on Mississippi. Someday, probably around when Young Jean Lee wins a Pulitzer, we’ll be saying we knew her when.
An incredible evening of theater-and I mean that with the full force of the cliche. It takes creative ferocity and dazzling technical skills to grab this tiger—black/white race relations in America today—by the tale/tail.
Young Jean Lee and her dextrous cast use every tool in the arsenal to push this explosive conversation into new territory: actors delivered their story in song, dance, stand-up, pantomime, the naturalism of a crate-and-barrel living room, and every stereotype they could embody and upend. Young Jean Lee’s language often descends into a brutal gutter. The shock of the crudeness opens our ears to an topic that’s uncomfortable for many of us and makes her lyric flights all the sweeter.
It is THRILLING to see theater that plays so close to the edge that its meaning can only be gleaned live, onstage. The race-relations content is so ambitious, the forms (especially performing in stereotypes), played so near the line—I think it takes a real-time, live-in-person conversation between actors and audience to deliver these questions clearly. The shades of irony, protest, rage, hope, and bravery would be washed out on video.
Unless this talented playwright has just sold the film rights. In which case, kudos to you, Young Jean Lee! And forget I said anything.