Hello World!!!

I love the A…I guess that’s why I have lived here since I was six years old…I especially love it when the city is abuzz with numerous events simultaneously…As R & I traveled to the 14th Street Playhouse, we had to wade our way through groups of people walking the streets as a festival was nearby…And we all know the 100 Black Men of Atlanta TSU and FAMU football game also had the city on lock this weekend…And as I said before, R&I were doing our own thang…

And so let me get to my review…From the time, R & I walked into the theater where we would see the play, I knew that because of intimacy of the theater I would have more of a reaction than if I had been in a large theater where I was likely to be rows and rows away from the actors. This theater housed about 50 people with the front row right on the stage…As R and I waited for the play to start, we discovered that we both hate musicals…(I’m sorry, I fell asleep in “The Color Purple” musical when I saw it on Broadway in NYC)…But we also discovered that in spite of our distaste for musicals, we both love “Annie.” Go figure…Oh, the new discoveries while you are dating…

As promised, “the Black Man-O-logues II”  served up different scenarios of black men expressing love…I always make sure to pay special attention when a man in general, a black man in particular, willingly describe their emotions on the subject of love because it is so rare…

In the first scenario, we are introduced to Dash, a young man who is starting to “smell himself” but desperately wants to have guidance from a father who is not there…I think his father died but at any rate, two thuggish characters, one of which claims to have known Dash’s father,  in his neighborhood start to have increasing influence over him to his mother’s dismay…I wondered if this is what happens to many black boys who want to be men…Are they lured by the streets in order to find father figures at any cost? Aside: I know that single parenthood cannot be avoided in some cases, but we can all agree that a nuclear family is really the best environment in which to raise a child?…I’m so tired of people acting like a single parent is just as good as two parents…I really do think our community is suffering because of this fallacy…Okay, off of my soapbox and back to my review…

Now the second scenario was R’s favorite…and I really enjoyed it too…In this scene, we meet Demarcus and Priya,who are having an emotional affair at work…In fact, they refer to each other as office spouses although they both have real spouses at home…Hmmm…I don’t recall ever working directly with anyone who I would want to have an affair with…but from what I have heard, I know this is to be a very timely issue…At any rate, Demarcus is a prime candidate for an affair – emotional or otherwise – as he is feeling neglected by his wife…Although married for just a few years, Demarcus reveals to Priya that he and his wife are only having sex twice a month…R looks at me and says, “Do you think that is acceptable?” I look at him, pat his leg and say, “Of course not.”  Guess he is collecting data too…Ha!  Priya, on the other hand, does not seem deprived at home so I wonder why she seems to ready to get involved with Demarcus…R explained to me later that there are just women out there, happily married or not, who are always ready to provide a man with what he does not get at home…The takeaway from this scenario is that if you want to keep a man, a woman must be prepared to “cook, cut and compliment…” A more vulgar three-prong command was offered, but I will let you only imagine what that was…

I won’t describe each scenario in detail but I will attempt to give you the highlights…In the third scenario, we are introduced to a young man, Junior, 16, who molests his 3-year-old sister…At the end of the scene, he winds up dead at the hand of his father who cannot believe that his son is a child molester…I found it hard to believe that a father could shoot his son in this manner but it made for very compelling theater…While I was watching this scene, I did remember this dude from my childhood that mysteriously vanished after the neighborhood heard a rumor that he molested his sister…And I don’t believe this topic is dealt with enough for sure…

In the next scenario, we meet a mama’s boy, Greg,  who is at the mercy of his mama’s every whim – although he is a grown man…In fact, he is so influenced by his mother that he is about to lose his girlfriend of two years…In fact, as the scene unfolds, it is revealed that his mother, who craves her son’s undivided attention, hid letters from his father and told him that his father did not want him although that was a lie…Apparently, his parents separated when he was very young, and the father moved far away but asked his son to come and live with him…He refers to his mother as “Queen,” and he reserves every Thursday night for his mama to his girlfriend’s disgust…He even spends that night at his mama’s and refuses to introduce his mama to his girlfriend…Hmmm…I have come across a few mama’s boys in my day…And yes, the relationship, in some ways, resembles the one between a man and his wife…not sexy at all…

With current events as they are in Atlanta, the next scenario elicits audience participation aplenty…Gabriel is struggling with his sexual preference…And his churchgoing parents are struggling too…In fact, Gabriel undergoes some sort of ritual where church people attempt to beat the “gay demon” out of him…Hmmm…does that really go on? After surviving the beating or thrashing or whatever it was, Gabriel, who had passed out during the ritual, delivers a heartfelt plea to be treated with dignity and love…He tells the audience that no one would choose to be that way given the response that people have toward him and that the church focuses too much on homosexuality when it should be focusing on other other issues like why even 50 percent of marriages between church folk end up in divorce – no different from the world – Again, due to current events, obviously, this is  a topic that needs be discussed openly and honestly…

In the next scene, we see a couple getting ready to have relations…lol…but are interrupted by Dash from the first scene along with his two misguided homies who want to steal valuables from the couple’s home…By the end of the scene, the three would-be burglars are shot dead by the man in the couple who laments that he is responsible for killing three black men…Apparently, in a recession, there are some who would rather steal it  than try to make it honestly during tough times…Aside: As the couple were getting in the mood, Jodeci’s “Freakin You” was playing the background…R & I shared how we both played that album over and over again back in the day (more dating discoveries)…Guess I can’t play my old tape as I’m getting ready for church this morning lol, but I plan to take a listen sometime this week…LOVED that album…If only K-Ci and JoJo would get themselves together…

Lest I go on too long, I particularly enjoyed the scenario about two married couples that have one thing in common – both husbands are out of work and the wives are forced to be the sole breadwinners in the household while the husbands stay at home with the children…However, one husband was very uncomfortable with the situation and wore an apron that said, “This is some bull__.” Funny, huh? His wife, however, was happy being the major breadwinner and was starting to patronize her husband with her comments about his worth to the family…

The husband in the other couple, however, is very comfortable being a househusband while his wife is jealous because she wants to be the one to stay at home and take their children to school, field trips, etc. Now, it was my time to ask R a question or two…lol…Now, we all know that job loss happens from time to time…but in any household where I’m the wife, I don’t think I can live with my man being a househusband…now, my father always worked from home during my childhood but he was never a househusband…Naw, playa, when I leave for work, erebody leaves for work…

Other scenarios were presented but in the interest of brevity, let me wrap it up…

The sum of it all – R&I thought the play was excellent and inspired discussion during the play and afterward…y’all better check for Jacquay Waller because he is doin’ it!

Any thoughts?