The Tulsa Oklahoma race riots of 1921 devastated the prosperous Greenwood section of the city famously known as the "Black Wall Street." That terrible event, during which the local sheriff and bands of whites destroyed homes and businesses, the alleged result of an assault on a white woman by a black man, lasted for two days. It provides the historic background and the inspiration for Nikkole Salter's domestic drama Repairing a Nation, now at the Crossroads Theater.
Set in 2001, 80 years after the riots, or, as a character insists on calling it, "the Greenwood massacre," the play primarily focuses on the trouble created by the fictitious Davis family's most contentious member. Lois Davis (Stephanie Berry) is a confirmed outsider whose unsettling visit to her cousin "Chuck" (Phil McGlaston) and his wife Anna's (Chantal Jean-Pierre) Tulsa home during the Christmas holidays brings the subject of reparations into sharp relief and with it a very personal focus. The handsome living-room setting designed by Gennie Neuman Lambert also accommodates a large overhead video projection screen.
For starters, Lois wants them to become involved in a class action suit instituted by members of the community who are seeking reparations from the government on behalf of the riots' survivors and kin. Long-standing, deep-seated animosities, regrets and hostilities surface with increased tenacity as Lois, a semi-estranged, economically challenged, political activist makes no excuses for herself. More importantly, she does she pretend to have much love or even affection for her wealthy cousins despite her unapologetic attempt to get Chuck, as head of the family, to sign a document in support of a congressional proposal to study reparations for African Americans.
Also present are Lois's son Seth (Landon G. Woodson), an NYU student who has been raised since infancy by Anna and Chuck, and whose relationship with his feisty birth mother is, at its best, strained. Also helping Lois in her cause is Seth's former girlfriend, a community advocate currently preparing a memorial at the local cultural center. It is there and where opening and closing scenes take place that a statue will be unveiled in memory of the two-day riots.
It is the community's suit for reparations that serves as the springboard for Salter's characters to become more heatedly embroiled in disturbing recriminations and disclosures that may, indeed, involve past deceptions, lies, and now the very real possibility of reparations among the immediate family members. The Davis family business, a successful janitorial service, survived the riots, but who actually inherited it and owns it comes under question when an old newspaper article/photo comes to light.
Though the actors have a tendency to direct their speeches (quite a lot of which are unnecessarily expository (the playwright's device) directly to the audience (a directorial decision by Marshal Jones III to be sure), the performances are vividly realized. Most impressive is Berry, as the proudly snippy and snide Lois. Phil McGlaston is excellent as the blustery and fiercely defensive “Chuck," while Chantal Jean-Pierre gets points for being more beautiful and conciliatory than her husband deserves. Angel Moore is charming as the perky "Debbie" and Landon G. Woodson quite fine as the conflicted Seth.
Salter, whose co-written play In the Continuum, was a Pulitzer Prize nominee and won the 2005 Outer Critics Circle award for Outstanding New American Play, has written this work to dramatically expand upon actual legislative bill proposed by Congressman John Conyers, Jr., that has never made it to committee—this despite it being proposed year after year. How great for Salter that her plays do make it past committee and get onto the stage: four premieres this season, with Repairing a Nation her first at the Crossroads Theatre Company.
