Scottsboro Boys Review

Taken from: http://bbbblogger.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/step-right-up-and-meet-the-scottsboro-boys/

I think it was no accident that the first thing to catch my eye upon reaching my seat for the performance of The Scottsboro Boys was a messy mountain of chairs. Some were upside down, some protruding out of the pile, I was confused as to why the set was this way and scared that they would all fall over. This fear ended up sticking with me throughout the entire play. The overly simplistic set was meant for viewers to pay more attention to the acting, but I think it had the opposite effect on me. I was on the edge of my seat when two or three chairs served as the only base for a train made of a wooden plank, hoping that it would support their weight when they jumped and shook the plank. The chairs served multiple different functions and were the only prop to make a jail cell, a solitary confinement box, a courtroom, a bus stop, and a train. Yet I could not forget that they were chairs, and was astounded when the sets did not fall apart the more they were interacted with by the characters. One example that comes to mind is when one of the boys vehemently shakes an upside down chair resting on a right side up chair as an attempt to open the door, I could not believe that the chairs went back to their original position and did not fall over.

Seating arrangements aside, I appreciated the performance because of the pure talent of the actors and the vision behind it. It was an interesting choice to make all but one cast member black, and some black actors dress as white lawyers or white women; I liked that it stayed true to the minstrel tradition. It also gave a subtle but important message of how the racism that prevailed in these times is fundamentally stupid and the  cast members showed that we’re all really the same regardless of color. The mostly upbeat feel of the play and the accompanying songs made this serious and awkward topic much more bearable and easy to watch and talk about. Given the context of the very sad story about the 9 boys who were imprisoned under a false accusation of the rape of two white woman, one would never expect to be smiling, laughing, and watching a magnificant lightshow and dancing that happened during the electric chair song. It was an unexpected but warmly welcome surprise. The characters of Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo waddled around stage and spoke so ridiculously that you couldn’t  help but laugh at them. Their inadequacies also showed the fallacies in the concept of white supremacy, as the Scottsboro boys were portrayed as much more thoughtful and smarter. Haywood’s character was seen the most of a 9 boys, and I think he did an excellent job at representing them all when speaking of the injustices he was being faced with.