The Show, August 6, 2012

Yes, yes, yes, SummerWorks is a festival of discovery, of shiny young faces and new works, but there is one work that sticks out that you should be lining up for and it is a classic. (As one US TV network used to say about its summer reruns, "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you!") 

Forget your Mamet and his vague, irritating plays with some vague, irritating hot-button issue in the middle. Before all of the pinkos and fascists in theatre, there was LeRoi Jones (now known as Amiri Baraka - a hot button issue in his own right) and before the Oleanna's and the Race's there was Dutchman. First performed in 1964 and subsequently made into a tiny and terrifying little movie, Dutchman is the kind of work which, when performed well, leaves you walking out of the theatre in a daze, and remembering the experience forever.

A black man, a white woman, and - in this case - a bus where the audience members are passengers.

Nuf sed.

Dutchman is at SummerWorks