ON STAGE: Crown Heights, Brooklyn & Other Identities
eye WEEKLY
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eye WEEKLY October 10, 1996
Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday
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ON STAGE ON STAGE
CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN AND OTHER IDENTITIES
Featuring Marium Carvell. Written by Anna Deavere Smith. Directed by
Colin Taylor. Presented by Theatre WUM. Canadian Stage Berkeley Street
Upstairs, 26 Berkeley St. To Oct. 26. $10-25, 368-3110.
by
ROBERT ARMSTRONG
For such a simple play -- no more than a series of monologues woven
around two central events -- Fires In The Mirror is an intricate and
subtle portrait of intractable racial strife.
The events are the death of 7-year-old Gavin Cato, a black boy killed
by a car travelling in a rabbinical motorcade in Crown Heights
Brooklyn in 1991, and the retaliatory knifing of Yankel Rosenbaum a
few hours later. These two deaths led to some of the worst rioting
ever seen between blacks and Orthodox Jews.
Playwright Anna Deavere Smith draws on voices from both communities to
scrape away at a particularly ugly situation. As easily identifiable
minorities, these two groups seem like ideal political allies. But
they're not. Smith shows how contradictions and political cant seized
the day. Is 350 years of slavery a greater crime against humanity than
six years of Holocaust? Did Jewish leaders influence the courts?
For a one-person show, its list of characters is vast. By altering her
vocal mannerisms and with the strategic exchange of a few costume
pieces, the fabulous Marium Carvell consistently and convincingly
mutates from a Hassidic rabbi to a radical black activist, from a
relative of the deceased to a neighborhood friend.
Director Colin Taylor makes a virtue of the rather lengthy changes
between these vignettes. Beyond affording room for a taped, voice-over
chronology of the Crown Heights events, the pauses lend dignity and
seriousness to a play that could have descended into a series of
squalid recriminations.
Despite its documentary-style trappings (title slides to introduce and
ground characters), Fires In The Mirror creates a mood and impact that
are purely theatrical and make this show one to be seen.
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