A Free Man of Color

Vivian Beaumont Theater

Lincoln Center

How often do you get to say - I'm not sure I enjoyed it, I probably wouldn't recommend it, but I'm glad I went? That's how we felt after seeing A Free Man of Color at Lincoln Center last night.

Directed by George C. Wolfe, it had one of the principle problems that another fine production of his had several years ago. Like Mother Courage with that unbelievable cast - this also seemed like a train that has somehow gotten away. People are running around the stage in both productions in something of emergency mode, yelling their lines and then running off again. Productions where people are running and yelling for three hours (or nearly four hours in MC's case, if I remember right) generally get the thumbs down by default. But, these were both so much more complex than that. I have to at least wonder, if not agree, that some of the running may have been justified, but I reserve the right to revise that opinion if someone ever shows me that it can be done differently.

There was absolutely no lack of talent on the stage. My goodness. It was so big and wonderful that you could spend half the night thinking, "I know him/her from somewhere...where?" Oh, Six Feet Under. Oh, Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party, There Will Be Blood. Oh, this TV show. Oh, that movie.

There were so many standout performances. One of my favorites was Mos (formerly Mos Def) who played Murmur, a role like that of the servant in Don Juan. He had the right amount of gravitas and the quality I admired most on the stage, a stillness in the midst of utter chaos and a sense of one's own pacing. It is difficult to keep your head in what was essentially a riot atmosphere on the stage and anyone who could do it - I considered absolutely brilliant.

And, I have to say - amazing costumes. Amazing. There were a million costumes. They were all amazing. We were in the second row and could see them close up and they were just incredible.

So, what was this play about? I kind of know. I could have used a semester of history on the years 1800-1804 before having attended and that was a major downfall of the play - we aren't all up on our Louisiana Purchase history. We are smart people. We've seen a lot of theater. For us to have left and not really be able to nutshell the story line, well I think the playwright and the director lost the forest to the trees.

It's a meeting of a Don Juan like character, America's racial history, the Louisiana Purchase, life in New Orleans in 1800 or so, and the world stage at that time with France, England and what is now Haiti. A man of color has inherited his father's fortune. He has also bought his own independence from slavery through enterprise. He is now a Don Juan fop. He is set in a melting pot New Orleans of great racial complexity, where history is about to be made. Everything west of New Orleans is unknown and yet to be discovered. Who will own the new territory? It is yet to be decided. And, what will that ownership to do to the society and the people there? That's also up for grabs.

Essentially, this free man of color loses all that he has gained when the US does the Louisiana Purchase deal. And, essentially, something about the size of the new country throws America's race relations into eternal chaos as the country is now too big to farm itself.

The message wasn't new or overwhelmingly fresh. We need to keep trying at this race relations thing and keep believing it can be better. We need to keep freeing people of color who are not still equal. A message for our time from the past.

So, the central problem was the play itself. It was a bulwark of words and thoughts that took years to come to fruition, overly complex and yet too simple. According to the Playbill, this was a seven year collaboration. Sometimes the things that take the longest to come together are the ones that don't work out for the best. If it's not easy to write, there might be a reason. I think we saw what will be a very rare production of this play.