Theater review: The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington
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SHOWDOWN: Nancy Boykin and Aaron Bell in Flashpoint Theatre Company’s <em>The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington</em>.
Ian Paul Guzzone
Ian Paul Guzzone
Flashpoint Theatre Company’s 10th season starts with the premiere of Barrymore Award-winning actor James Ijames’ The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington.
His dark comedy is a theatrical extravaganza reminiscent of Suzan Lori Parks’ explorations of American history. Like her, Ijames uses modern references and songs to explode a mythical figure.
Martha (Nancy Boykin), recently widowed, lies helpless on a large bed on Thom Weaver’s open platform set. Narrow bunk beds hold her slaves, who, knowing that George’s will specified that they be freed upon Martha’s death, await her demise with barely repressed glee and naked resentment. “I do believe you darkies are trying to kill me,” she realizes. She’s paranoid — and right.
Like Charles Dickens’ Scrooge, Martha’s dreams bring a reckoning. Slaves Doll (Taysha Canales) and Priscilla (Jaylene Clark Owens) visit as abolitionists Betsy Ross and Abigail Adams. The slaves market Martha at a slave auction, and test her in a game show hosted by King George III (Darryl Gene Daughtry Jr.) and Queen Charlotte (Canales).
Her trial features Steven Wright as her beleaguered defense lawyer, and Aaron Bell’s William as the judge, a boy who calls Martha his “auntie-grandma.” All through with Martha is Melayne Finnister’s fascinating Anne, William’s mother, Martha’s lifelong companion and half-sister, raped by Martha’s son from her first husband. Finnister brilliantly reveals Anne’s pent-up frustrations: A beloved slave by Martha’s standards, she embodies her life’s tragedies with dignity.
Will Martha finally understand? “Where would any of you be without me?” she spits. “I’m the mother of America.”
Director Edward Sobel’s production mixes humor, pathos (the slaves are always onstage working) and music (moving spirituals composed by Daniel Perelstein) that build to a surprisingly hopeful and revelatory ending.
One might wish for more about the slaves — like many stories about oppression, this one focuses mainly on an oppressor — but the play fulfills its title’s promise by proving both lamentable and spectacular.
Through June 29, $22-$25, Flashpoint Theatre Company at the Off Broad Street Theatre, 1636 Sansom St., 267-997-3312, flashpointtheatre.org.
