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Fires In The Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn And Other Identities Fires In The Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn And Other Identities. By Anna Deavere Smith. City Theatre, Pittsburgh. March 1995.
Are we to take Anna Deavere Smith's productions on their referential vector, as referring to racial tension in Crown Heights and South Central, or solipsistically as instances of the performance of identity and selfhood? Seeing Smith's work performed by others sheds new light on the issue. There has been at least one professional production (by the Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis), prior to that of the City Theatre, in which a larger cast undertook the roles originally created and performed by Smith. Here, a black actress (Chrystal Bates) and a white actress (Jennifer Mendenhall) constitute the cast, under the direction of Sara Chazen and Marc Masterson.
The City Theatre's intimate (ca. 225 capacity) performance space is set up proscenium style for the production. Two large trapezoidal slabs painted to look like brick walls are hung at angles upstage and suspended a foot from the floor, which is itself a raised trapezoidal plinth. On the suspended brick facades are white paint patches smudged in muddy colors. The effect is abstractly urban. Four video monitors in chrome étageres flank the stage. These are in play intermittently, providing (silent) illustrations of the Crown Heights riot that was provoked when a reckless driver in...