Courtesy of Eric Woolsey“This is a true story,” the narrator of the Performing Arts Department’s latest production “Ipi Zombi?” reminds us again and again. A South African play written by a white man (Brett Bailey) about a black community and for a Western audience, “Ipi Zombi?” (translated as “Where are the zombies?”) announces itself as so different as to be incredible. Indeed, there are few plays like it. The drama runs only an hour long, spastically transforming itself from drama to musical, dance theatre to game show. The result is a sufficiently difficult performance, one more befuddling than challenging.
The basic plot is simple enough. A bus full of school children crashes, and when one of the injured boys mentions the possibility of a superstitious cause, the town’s reactionary students begin a witch hunt. This kind of theatrical social hysteria has its precursor, of course. The great Western witch hunt play, Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” has already been written. Quite aware of this development, Bailey and the production’s director, Pushkar Sharma, want to give us something new, different and altogether “non-Western.”
Unfortunately, the play fails exactly where it intends to succeed. While the “The Crucible” is a sustained effort, slowly building up tension and meaning, “Ipi Zombi?” takes a rather perverse pride in its informality. Literally and figuratively, the play jumps around all too much. Instead of maintaining the intensity of its dramatic moments – and there are more than several – Bailey’s play and Sharma’s direction take us through one exceedingly unexpected turn after another. Right when we become drawn into the immense severity of the plot, the tone shifts. The palpable terror of the student gang quickly morphs into a game show. Suddenly, a feminized devil appears onstage, seductively playing games with the audience. Soon thereafter, the actors are doing a show tune. The pace is too fast and the tone too uneven; the audience, meanwhile, is left out to dry.
While the idea may be to force a passive audience into activity by throwing them curveballs and upsetting their sense of rhythm and dramatic development, in practice we get something quite different. More confused than uncomfortable, more exhausted than tense, viewers of “Ipi Zombi?” will feel little different about the play’s themes after the play than they did before it.
That the play never truly takes off is a shame, if only because there are many outstanding moments, the effects of Sharma’s often compelling production.
Several actors, in particular, stand out. Chauncy Thomas proves to be the production’s most valuable performer, taking on multiple roles, multiple genders and multiple costumes in a truly fine display of artistic versatility.
Shewan E. Howard, a 2001 graduate, is perhaps the biggest surprise. As the leader of the student gang, his onstage ferocity – aided by a body that has surely spent some time in a weight room – is unmatched by anything to come through the PAD in years.
Monica O’Malley is equally impressive in the sheer force of her performance. As one of the victims accused of witchcraft, her dying scene is of high cinematic quality.
Finally, Cory Coleman deserves credit as the play’s narrator. Her commentary, especially in the play’s closing minutes, gives the performance’s jaggedness some direction and shape.
As for Sharma, the director’s effort should not go unmentioned. Faced with limited resources – one can only imagine a production in which the African dance and song were delivered by actors seriously trained in African dance and song – and an exceptionally difficult script, he still manages to deliver a production that at least follows through on its promise to be different from the traditional sort of theatre. The direction falls short only because the director’s ambition in choosing the play was perhaps too great. Hopefully, the next play that this talented director – still only an undergraduate – chooses will be a bit more digestible.