The Washington Post - 29.08.2019

(Joyce) #1

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE C3


BY CELIA WREN


Double Dutch jump rope rare-
ly gets its due in drama, but the
game inspires a touching mo-
ment in “Fabulation, or the Re-
Education of Undine,” Lynn Not-
tage’s satire about upward and
downward mobility in contempo-
rary America.
Now on view in a mostly sleek
Mosaic Theater Company pro-
duction, “Fabulation” tells of Un-
dine, an African American PR
bigwig whose world unravels af-
ter her husband absconds with
her money. Obliged to move back
in with her family in the projects,
Undine one day finds herself
accosted by two women in the
neighborhood. The women chant
a playground ditty. Undine looks
wary. And then, suddenly, she is
singing along and bouncing in
place, acknowledging that the
women are her childhood pals,
erstwhile double Dutch champi-
ons. The flash of playfulness re-
veals an entirely new side of
Undine, whom we have previous-
ly seen only in aggressive-profes-
sional or resentful-victim mode.
The sequence epitomizes the
most rewarding aspect of “Fabu-
lation,” which is directed by Eric
Ruffin and stars a force-of-nature
Felicia Curry as Undine. Written
in a less naturalistic mode than
Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning
plays “Sweat” and “Ruined,” but
sharing the former’s concerns
with America’s socioeconomic
and racial fault lines, the 2004
“Fabulation” abounds in biting
satirical specificity. There’s a
Kafkaesque social service office, a
Walgreen’s security guard who
lectures a shoplifter about the
sacrifice of Nelson Mandela, and
a Harvard Business School-edu-
cated Yoruba priest who advises
Undine to offer a wrathful deity
$1,000 (cash) and a bottle of
Mount Gay premium rum. The
sly details sometimes have a dis-
tancing effect, but they are con-
sistently funny.
Still, over the course of the
play, a more emotional dynamic
gets greater traction. As s he hits if
not rock bottom then Brooklyn-
asphalt bottom, Undine sheds
her carapace of ruthless ambition
and, haltingly, regains her soul.
Curry makes this story line pay
off, pivoting from withering dia-
logue to deadpan comic narra-
tion (Undine frequently address-
es the audience directly) to affect-
ing vulnerability.
Heightened comic perform-
ances prevail through most of
Ruffin’s briskly moving produc-
tion, and the stylization suits the
story’s hyperbolic touches. All the
actors except for Curry double:
Roz White and William T. New-
man Jr. are particularly enjoyable
as Undine’s g uileless p arents, and
Aakhu TuahNera Freeman ably
blends sweetness and flintiness
as Undine’s not-so-innocent
grandmother.
As Undine’s flaky brother, who

is writing an epic poem about
Br’er Rabbit and oppression,
Kevin E. Thorne II gets to unleash
some piquant roller-coaster
rants; unfortunately, the words in
one thematically important spiel
are hard to make out. And the
actor is vastly less convincing in a
cameo as an FBI agent, sapping
that scene of vim.
In a directorial touch, white-
clad figures wander by between
scenes, playing handheld percus-
sion and looking like acolytes of
that Yoruba priest. These inter-
ludes do hint at Undine’s sense of
defamiliarization, amid her new
circumstances, but they are dis-
tracting.
Designer Andrew Cohen helps
the storytelling with his astute,
streamlined set, with atmos-
pheric fly-in units (like a PR firm’s
severe modern office) staked out
in front of a backdrop imprinted
with watching faces and African
textile colors. Moyenda Kuleme-
ka designed the telling costumes
(such as the intimidating white
pantsuit Undine wears early on).
Comic dimension notwith-

standing, “Fabulation” poignant-
ly captures the socioeconomic
precariousness that some experi-
ence in a society plagued by
systemic injustice and vast in-
equality. “They give you a taste,
‘How ya like it?’ then promptly
take it away,” Undine reflects,
looking back at her brief fling
with privilege.
With its stinging satirical pre-
cision and looming awareness of
risk and loss, “Fabulation” is nev-
er just a fable.
[email protected]

Fa bulation, or the Re-Education
of Undine, by Lynn Nottage.
Directed by Eric Ruffin; lights, John D.
Alexander; sound, Cresent R.
Haynes; rhythm/musical consultant,
Christylez Bacon; movement
consultant, Rashida Bumbray;
properties, Willow Watson. With
Carlos Saldaña, Lauryn Simone and
James Whalen. About 2 hours
15 minutes. Tickets: $20-$65.
Through Sept. 22 at the Atlas
Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St.
NE. 202-399-7993 or
mosaic theater.org.

THEATER REVIEW

After a crash, relearning the ropes


CHRISTOPHER BANKS
Felicia Curry is a force of nature as Undine, and Aakhu TuahNera
Freeman plays her grandmother in Mosaic Theater’s “Fabulation.”

Mu rphy performed tackled race
in edgy and direct ways. Sketches
such as “White Like Me” a nd “Mis-
ter Robinson’s Neighborhood”
have since become c lassics.
When Murphy joined, many of
SNL’s biggest stars from its first
few years — Dan Aykroyd, John
Belushi, Gilda Radner — had al-
ready left. Much of the new cast
was “cowed by the fact they were
following in the footsteps of these
luminaries,” former SNL writer
David Sheffield told The Washing-
ton Post’s G eoff Edgers. “I remem-
ber watching Eddie, and he was
completely relaxed. He l ooked like
if the set fell down on top of him,
he would not give a damn.”
Soon Murphy became indis-
pensable. “Eddie’s the single most
important performer in the his-
tory of the show,” Dick Ebersol,
who returned as executive pro-
ducer during Murphy’s run, previ-
ously told Edgers. Ebersol even
instituted an unspoken rule that
Murphy had to be on screen at
least three times during the first
half of the night. “He literally
saved the show.”
But during his four-year r un on
SNL, which included popular per-
formances as Gumby, Buckwheat
and James Brown, Murphy was
also turning into a movie star. He
released box-office hits such as
“48 Hrs.” and “Trading Places,”
and the stand-up special “Deliri-
ous.”
As he approached his final sea-
son in 1984, he told Rolling Stone,
“I can’t w ait to leave.” He said that
he didn’t find the show funny
anymore and was ready to focus
on his acting and music career.
In the years that followed, a
mythology built up that Murphy
had ill will toward SNL. He de-
clined to be interviewed for the


MURPHY FROM C1


book “Live From New York: The
Complete, Uncensored History of
Saturday Night Live,” and his ab-
sence on the show’s 25th anniver-
sary was glaring.
“Everybody had their own theo-
ry,” the book’s co-author, James A.
Miller, told ThinkProgress in


  1. “But it wasn’t like there was
    a huge fistfight. I really, to tell you
    the truth, I think there’s many
    explanations out there, probably a
    dozen, about why it all happened.”
    One of the most persistent the-
    ories had to do with a joke David
    Spade told during a “Hollywood
    Minute” sketch in 1995, during a
    career downturn for Murphy.
    “Look, children,” Spade said as a
    photo of Murphy appeared, “it’s a
    falling star. Make a wish.” Accord-
    ing to Spade, Murphy called him
    up angrily to complain.
    “I made a stink about it, it be-
    came part of the folklore,” M urphy
    told Rolling Stone in 2011. “What
    really irritated me about it at the
    time was that it was a career shot.


It w as like, ‘Hey, come on, man, i t’s
one thing for you guys to do a joke
about some movie of mine, but my
career? I’m one of you guys.’ ”
Murphy and Spade have since
reconciled, and Murphy has also
spoken publicly about how much
SNL meant to him. In a highly
anticipated return, Murphy ap-
peared during the 40th anniver-
sary episode. He expressed grati-
tude that people valued “the stuff I
did 35 years ago on the show” a nd
said, “ I will always love this show."
But then he ended his appear-
ance without telling a single joke.
Later, it was revealed that the
show had wanted him to imper-
sonate Bill Cosby. “I totally under-
stood,” Murphy told Edgers. “It
was the biggest thing in the news
at the time. I can see why they
thought it would be funny, a nd the
sketch that Norm [Macdonald]
wrote was hysterical.”
But, he added, the Cosby story
was “horrible. There’s nothing
funny about it. If you get up there

and you crack jokes about him,
you’re just hurting people. You’re
hurting him. You’re hurting his
accusers. I was like, ‘Hey, I’m com-
ing back to SNL for the anniversa-
ry, I’m not turning my m oment on
the show into this other thing.’ ”
(Murphy told a Cosby joke later
that same year as he accepted the
Mark Twain Prize for American
Humor.)
Now, Murphy is prepping for
another return to the spotlight,
with rumors that a Netflix stand-
up special is in the works. He
recently appeared in the latest
season of Jerry Seinfeld’s “Co-
medians in Cars Getting Coffee”
on Netflix and will be in next
month’s Netflix movie “Dolemite
Is My Name.” He’ll also reprise his
role as Prince Akeem in the hotly
anticipated “Coming to America”
sequel, due out in 2020.
Given all this, it makes sense
that Murphy has chosen now as
the time to return to SNL.
“This show is such a big part of

who I am,” Murphy said during his
40th anniversary appearance.
And being at Studio 8H, he said,
“feels like going back to my old
high school.”
[email protected]

Leslie Jones leaving SNL
When “Saturday Night L ive” r e-
turns next month, one of its most
popular cast members will not:
Leslie Jones has chosen to leave
the sketch-comedy series after
five seasons, according to multi-
ple reports.
Jones joined SNL as a writer in
early 2014 after having estab-
lished herself as a stand-up act. It
was on Chris Rock’s recommenda-
tion that Lorne Michaels consid-
ered Jones for the show; though
she had auditioned the previous
year as part of a casting call de-
signed to increase diversity, that
spot ended up going to Sasheer
Zamata. Jones’s own SNL career
began rockily, as her on-screen
debut during a May 2014 segment

of “Weekend Update” courted
controversy. (She repeated a joke
she had previously told in clubs
about how difficult it is for black
women to date nowadays: “Back
in the slave days, I would never
have been single,” s he said, refer-
ring to herself as the “No. 1 slave
draft pick.”)
Nevertheless, Jones was made a
featured player that fall, making
her the oldest cast member the
show had ever hired. At 47, she
kicked off a new stage in her ca-
reer, skirting some aspects of the
SNL tradition by earning t he most
recognition for playing an exag-
gerated version of herself.
Consider a “Weekend Update”
segment from this year, in which
Jones made waves by dressing in
a red cloak from “The Hand-
maid’s Ta le” and condemning Al-
abama’s near-total abortion ban.
“Well, basically, we’re all hand-
maids now,” s he said, adding, “I’m
out living my life, and then I see
on the news [that] a bunch of
states are trying to ban abortion
and tell me what I can and can’t
do with my body.
“The next thing you know, I’m
in Starbucks and they won’t take
my c redit card because I’m a wom-
an — instead of the regular reason,
which i s, I don’t h ave no money on
it.”
Jones has received Emmy nom-
inations for each of the past three
seasons of SNL, the first two as a
supporting comedic actress and
the most recent for co-writing the
music and lyrics to “The U.E.S.,” a
sketch in which s he raps an ode to
the Upper East Side. Jones, who
booked a Netflix comedy special
set for a 2020 release, recently
voiced a character in “The Angry
Birds Movie 2” and is filming the
“Coming to America” sequel with
Eddie Murphy.
— Sonia Rao

Eddie Murphy, credited with helping rescue SNL in the ’80s, to return as host


SUZANNE VLAMIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams and Joe Piscopo during rehearsals
for the Feb. 10, 1984, episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

WILL HEATH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Leslie Jones, center, flanked by Olympic hockey player Hilary
Knight, left, and Colin Jost on SNL. Jones is leaving the show.

BY MICHAEL DIRDA


“Nearly all the theories, ab-
stractions, hierarchies, and isms
of contemporary culture tend
toward the same end: to saddle
people, in all their glorious and
individual messiness, with sim-
ple, easy-to-read labels. That
which is unique is treated as
generic. And the generic, unlike
the unique, is always expend-
able.”
That paragraph — it’s from an
essay I wrote years ago — pretty
much sums up a central theme of
the five paperbacks reprinted as
“The Harper Perennial Resis-
tance Library.” In the words of its
mission statement, this series
highlights “classic works of inde-
pendent thought that illuminate
the nature of truth, humanity’s
dangerous attraction to authori-
tarianism, the influence of media
and mass communication, and
the philosophy of resistance — all
critical in understanding today’s
politically charged world.”
The most famous of the five
books is either Eric Hoffer’s
analysis of mass movements,
“The True Believer,” or “Obedi-
ence to Authority,” psychologist
Stanley Milgram’s account of the
chilling experiments that re-
vealed how ordinary people
could be turned into torturers.
Complementing these, Erich
Fromm’s “On Disobedience”
looks at how human progress has
always depended on those who
break away from the yoke of
tradition and received opinion.
Also included are a selection of
Friedrich Nietzsche’s writings
“On Truth and Untruth,” chosen
and translated by Ta ylor Carman,
and Soren Kierkegaard’s “The
Present Age,” t ranslated by Alex-
ander Dru, in which the Danish
philosopher reflects on the rela-
tionship between thought and
action in a time when, in his
words, “nothing happens but
there is immediate publicity ev-
erywhere.”
Because all human beings are
both unique individuals and
members of various tribes — we
grow up in a family, are citizens of
a nation, believe in a religion —
our lives are balanced between
opposing tugs and polarities. To o
much emphasis on the self can
lead to obnoxious egotism, or
desperate loneliness or alien-


ation and paranoia. To o much
devotion to a community can
morph into racism, xenophobia,
mass hysteria and other forms of
fanaticism.
In Hoffer’s view, “there is no
telling to what desperate and
fantastic shifts” people “might
resort in order to give meaning
and purpose to their lives.” All
mass movements, he emphasizes,
“irrespective of the doctrine they
preach and the program they
project, breed fanaticism, enthu-
siasm, fervent hope, hatred and
intolerance; all of them are capa-
ble of releasing a powerful flow of
activity in certain departments of
life; all of them demand blind
faith and single hearted alle-
giance.”
An authoritarian movement
initially appeals most to the poor,
the insulted and injured, the
dispossessed and the bored. A
charismatic leader suddenly prof-
fers a new hope, some rosy vision
of a better life, an escape from a
debased existence. Dazzled by the
glorious time just around the
corner, a movement’s followers
can then accept crude absurdities
and trivial nonsense as eternal
truths. Paradoxically, as Hoffer
emphasizes, to be most effective,
“a doctrine must not be under-
stood, but has rather to be be-
lieved in.” I t actually gains power
by being unintelligible, totally
make-believe and, most impor-
tantly, “unverifiable.” The leader’s
devoted base can then be “urged
to seek the absolute truth with
their hearts and not their minds.”
Eventually, he adds, “all active
mass movements strive... to
interpose a fact-proof screen be-
tween the faithful and the reali-
ties of the world.”
In a chapter titled “Unifying
Agents,” Hoffer notes that “there
is no telling to what extremes of
cruelty and ruthlessness a man
will go to when he is freed from
the fears, hesitations, doubts and
the vague stirrings of decency
that go w ith individual judgment.
When we lose our individual
independence in the corporate-
ness of a mass movement, we find
a new freedom — freedom to
hate, bully, lie, torture, murder
and betray without shame and
remorse.” There, in kernel, are
some of the conclusions of Mil-
gram’s “Obedience to Authority.”
Here is the setup: Two people

come to a laboratory to partici-
pate in an experiment, ostensibly
about how punishment affects
memory and learning. One is
designated the “teacher,” t he oth-
er the “learner.” Whenever the
learner makes a mistake in an-
swering certain questions, the
teacher is told to administer an
electrical jolt of ever-increasing
intensity. In reality, the learner is
an actor and there is no shock.
But as the experiment goes on,
the learner will eventually pre-
tend to scream in agony. If the
teacher hesitates to continue, he
or she is firmly instructed to carry
on, that such reactions are to be
expected. “The aim of this investi-
gation was to find when and how
people would defy authority in
the face of a clear moral impera-
tive.”
Alas, “with numbing regulari-
ty, good people were seen to
knuckle under to the demands of
authority and perform actions
that were callous and severe.” In
the catchphrase used by so many
Nazi guards, “they were just fol-
lowing orders.” When asked why
he gunned down scores of un-
armed Vietnamese at My Lai, an
unnamed American soldier an-
swered, “I was ordered to do it,
and... at the time I felt like I was
doing the right thing.”
Appropriately, Fromm’s “On
Disobedience” warns against
such immoral conformity, as well
as “hysterical nationalism” and
the dehumanizing pressures of
industrial civilization. In the
modern world, he laments, “we
produce machines that are like
men and men who are like ma-
chines.”
Ultimately, these three books
— along with the Nietzsche and
Kierkegaard — should be read as
humanist manifestos. Evil tri-
umphs when we view living hu-
man beings as abstractions.
These days, in particular, we need
to show tolerance, empathy and
goodwill to others. The United
States is part of the world, not
separate from it. As Hoffer sadly
observed: “Should Americans be-
gin to hate foreigners whole-
heartedly, it will be an indication
that they have lost confidence in
their own way of life.”
[email protected]

Michael Dirda reviews books each
Thursday in Style.

BOOK WORLD


Great thinkers on how good people


can be led to do some very bad things


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