IMPERCEPTIBLE MUTABILITIES IN THE THIRD KINGDOM
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Parks does not develop characters, she creates voices–cryptic figures who both suggest and challenge archetypal images. She does not write dialogue, she strings together words in complicated cycles to drive home her philosophical points. Hers is a fragmented style with neither beginning nor end–it’s all amorphous middle.
The title and subtitle, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom: African-American history in the shadow of the photographic image, signals both what is right and what is wrong with this interlinked series of four short plays. It is intriguing but also overwrought and pretentious, inspiring the viewer to admire the playwright’s erudition more than her play.
Heady stuff, to be sure, and certainly worth the price of admission in Chicago Actors Ensemble’s expertly acted production, but probably a lot more interesting to discuss than to sit through. Parks’s play is too intricately constructed, too layered with contrived symbolism to be effective as drama. It even strives to seem more complex than it actually is. Her repetitious style gives the play a poetic rhythm, but also belabors obvious points. The emphatic shouting of “Marlin Perkins got a gun” on several occasions is just one example of how the playwright’s style can get monotonous.
