Walking into the Bank Street Theater, I am absolutely tortured when I see this gorgeous stage that A Sucker Emcee was set on because I couldn’t capture it in a photograph. A microphone stand was perfectly placed for a picture: not in the center, but just off to the side. The DJ stand to the other side of the stage wasn’t that appealing to my tastes, but it helped create balance within the stage. The lights above and below the back wall changed colors, leaving me mesmerized with how beautifully the concrete bricks reflected the different hues. The scene was picture perfect and made you feel like a comedian was just going to make a grand entrance at any moment.
The captivating feel of the stage stuck with me throughout the entire play. I think I was so mesmerized by how simple and symbolic the stage was that some of the actual content of the play was lost on me. The figure standing before me recounted his life story, but all I could think about was how much emphasis the color of the lighting that was reflecting on the concrete bricks placed on the emotions of what the figure was saying. The red was used in an obvious way, representing death and violence and the traumatic pain muMs felt from these events in his life. As muMs describes watching someone with their guts outside of their body, the day his brother got kicked out of his house and the events leading up to his fathers death, the concrete reflects a deep red. The red was also used as a representation of his father’s red hot romantic life. When muMs describes his feelings toward something the United States government has done, although I didn’t quite catch what exactly he meant, the top of the concrete bricks reflected red while the bottom reflected blue as a symbol of the United States itself. Purple and Green reflections were often used when muMs talked about hip-hop and some more enjoyable times that he has had in his life. When muMs spoke about the transition he had to make from being semi-famous due to his part as Poet on the HBO hit show “Oz” to losing his fame and money, green was also used in combination with blue (blue on the top of the concrete brick, green on the bottom). The transitional feel of the colors worked as a representation for the transition within his life. Blue was reflected on the bricks during the times when muMs spoke about fear, giving a chilling feel to his words.
Despite how much the lights emphasized what muMs was saying, it was the times when the lights were turned off that I really felt the power of muMs’ words. It was then that muMs uttered the sadder events of his life. The lights were all turned off except for the two white lights that shined on muMs, allowing me to see the powerful shirt he wore. It was a simple white t-shirt that said “The Truth Is” and some scribbled words underneath that I couldn’t make out from where I was seated. I felt that that t-shirt choice was the most powerful non-verbal touch to the whole play. That shirt resonated with the fact that this was muMs’ real life story and that everything said felt so real because it was all the truth.
