With war, terrorism and a declining economy in the past eight years, the United States may be in “state of emergency.” But in Daniel Beaty’s one-man, self-written show “Emergency,” the real emergency he confronts is not a recent political or economic development but rather racial tensions that continue to exist in spite of the country’s other pressing issues and, really, they do not prove very shocking at all.
“Emergency” premiered off-Broadway in 2006 and won an Obie Award, otherwise known as the “Tony” of off-Broadway, in 2007, and, upon seeing Beaty’s performance, one can understand why.
Hailed as “The Renaissance Man of the New Millennium,” Beaty integrates his monologue with spoken word and song and captures the voices of at least 40 different characters who witness the surfacing of an historical slave ship, aptly named “Remembrance,” from the Hudson River in front of the Statue of Liberty.
Although dressed in a plain T-shirt and slacks throughout the production, he evokes an array of black characters including an Anglicized businessman, a precocious teen choir star, a sassy transvestite, a flirtatious Rastafarian, an embittered homeless man and a wizened grandmother to name a few.
Reducing characters to caricatures would have been easy for Beaty to do, but Beaty ensures that each voice he shares emerges in a way the audience does not entirely expect.
Teen girl Clarissa may seem limited by her feisty attitude, but she reveals she is just as concerned about black equality and freedoms as the sage professor who Beaty also channels.
The homeless man recognizes he has made mistakes but continues to remember and respect his past.
Beaty moves in and out of each character effortlessly, yo-yoing his voice from impossible highs to resonant, bellowing lows in an instant. When Beaty sings a cappella, the walls and floors seem to shake. The music proves the highest point of the production, demanding the audience listen to what Beaty says.
Unfortunately, what Beaty has to say is nothing all that different than what has been said before. Though the slave ship’s emergence from the water provides a provocative concept, the symbolism of the ship is obvious and the conclusions the show reaches about race and acceptance can be predicted from the first five minutes of the show.
With the perspective limited to black characters, there is no real conflict between the different characters about the nature of the racial tensions and frustrations.
The characters, for the most part, seem to agree with each other that remembrance of African-Americans’ tragic past is essential to achieving “true freedom” in the present. Though this message should be addressed and understood, it was not approached with any new insight.
Despite some of the show’s predictability, Beaty’s charisma and control on stage are gripping. Beaty manages to carry a heavy hour-and-20-minute show on his shoulders as if flinging a paper bag, and this effortless skill is worth the price of admission.
““ Jenae Cohn
E-mail Cohn at jcohn@media.ucla.edu.