I AM A MAN
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The Chicago premiere of OyamO’s I Am a Man falls somewhere between the two extremes. This often gripping and pithy historical tale of the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, which coincided with the assassination of Martin Luther King, features some of the best acting on a Chicago stage in quite some time. But the beauty of OyamO’s agit-jazz poetry and the talents of director Marion McClinton’s actors are sometimes overwhelmed by the, well, Goodman-esque production.
The set on which the struggles of self-styled labor leader T.O. Jones are played out is symptomatic of Goodman’s tendency to gild the theatrical lily. Scott Bradley’s imposing metallic-looking abstract set–the part with jaws engulfs the two black sanitation workers whose deaths inspired the strike–looks like something out of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The intent may be to symbolize the pain caused by capitalist machinery; the effect, however, is merely distracting. Similarly, an exceedingly well choreographed and energetic scene in a Memphis honky-tonk is one of the play’s most elaborate, yet one of its least significant.
Certainly this production establishes Chisholm as a major talent on the national theater scene, one who might even achieve household-name status. Whether the same is true of playwright OyamO is a more difficult question. At times his use of language and characterization suggest an exciting new political voice, a 90s Brecht with a greater compassion and social conscience. At other times, however, his words get lost in the Goodman din. That makes it hard to say whether the Goodman is doing him a favor by hiding his flaws or doing him a disservice by obscuring his fine points.
