A review of Flyin' West, on stage at the International City Theatre in Long Beach until April 6, 2014.
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On the heels of the toe-tapping Cole Porter musical Let’s Misbehave, the International City Theatre’s season of “uniquely American stories” continues with the way-back machine set to the unsteady period after the Civil War in Pearl Cleage’s Flyin’ West. As the Author’s Notes helpfully inform us, tens of thousands of African-Americans left the South to escape racist violence and establish all-black settlements where they could live and work towards achieving their own dreams. It’s not a well-known chapter of American history, which makes it all the more important a story to tell. With an especially strong cast from a company that can be relied on to put strong casts on stage, the frontier comes to life on the ICT stage with the emotional drama of racial politics, family, and the will to survive in places far from metropolitan comforts.
At the play’s narrative heart is Sophie, a tough homesteader devoted to the idea of making Nickodemus, Kansas, a haven for African-Americans despite the risk of land takeover by real estate speculators. A rough and tumble visionary with a penchant for urban planning, she embodies the struggle of a pioneering spirit pitted against the greater societal injustices stemming from a war that abolished slavery in law but not necessarily in the hearts of men. She is surrounded by a family consisting of a cuddly curmudgeon, a gentle homemaker, a helpful neighbour, a younger sister on a homecoming break from London high life, and a dubious brother-in-law – in essence, the cast of a sit-com if the play held baser ambitions but actually a wonderful chemical mix in the ICT’s capable hands.
What a shame, then, that the play punts on the topical concerns etched into its scenario and ultimately derails into mere melodrama. The play’s most multifaceted character, a self-hating black man who indulges and strengthens the prejudice of white privilege so long as he can benefit from that privilege himself, ends up reduced to something close to pulp villainy. As a manifestation of that cognitive dissonance, domestic abuse takes over the narrative and leads to an easy way out from the heavier work required to address the complex intersection of politics and personal survival. How did the federal government view the black homesteaders? Did white land speculators have motives to acquire black-owned land beyond profit? What about the tragic irony that the land homesteaded by freed slaves was itself stolen by what the Author’s Notes describe as “dwindling populations of Native Americans?” And what about the embryonic politics that eventually led to the Jim Crow laws that ended the black settlements? Questions, questions, questions. Although Ms. Cleage gives us a glimpse into the characters’ personal experiences in the racist South, the broader issues underlying the “Exodus of 1879” mostly remain unexplored context. Instead, audiences with a gleefully Old Testament thirst for blood are indulged, their moral outrage at injustice satisfied in a tonally-inappropriate bit of dark comedy. Like the characters, we are relieved from the responsibility of confronting, and living with, complexity and contradiction.
So the play begins like a scalpel and ends like a butter knife. Yet the usual ICT production quality across the board nevertheless makes it a compelling experience – worthwhile, especially on account of the superlative cast, but with reservations. While the history lesson feels incomplete, there always is the library.
Flyin' West. Written by Pearl Cleage. Directed by Saundra McClain. On stage at the International City Theatre in Long Beach until April 6. For ticket information and showtimes, visit www.internationalcitytheatre.org or call 562.536.4610.
Frédérik Sisa is the Page's Assistant Editor and Resident Art Critic. He is also a tweeting luddite and occasional blogger, and can be reached at fsisa@thefrontpageonline.com.