Home
Titles
The champion newspaper.
October 17, 2019
Image 18
The champion newspaper., October 17, 2019, Image 18
About The champion newspaper. (Decatur, GA) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2019)
Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
of 73
Next
Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
of 73
Next
Newspaper Page Text
Tr :-$yfje
Page 2B
THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17-23, 2019
Silver, played by Tangela Large, is a mysterious woman from Louisiana in Paradise Blue.
Blue (Javon Johnson) and Pumpkin (Cynthia D. Barker) have a tempestuous relationship in Paradise Blue.
Urban
renewal
makes
tensions rise
in Paradise
Blue
BY GALE HORTON GAY
True Colors Theatre Company’s Paradise
Blue is a complex, multi-faceted—but also highly
entertaining—theatrical experience.
Urban renewal, decimation of a Black
neighborhood, demons from the past, domestic
violence, unrequited love come into play in the lives of
five characters at a Detroit bar and boarding house.
True Colors is the first theater in the country to
produce all three plays of Dominique Morisseau’s
Detroit trilogy of which Paradise Blue is the second
in the series. The playbill notes that urban renewal in
Detroit wiped out culturally rich Black neighborhoods
and businesses and provided tinder for the violent
1967 Detroit riots.
When a new mayor plans to fight blight in the city
and move African Americans out of Detroit’s Black
Bottom, club owner Blue contemplates selling his
family’s club and moving away. The possibility is
rift with ramifications for his beloved Pumpkin and
musicians Corn and P-Sam.
As the play evolves, tensions ratchet up
considerably between Blue, played by Javon Johnson,
and Pumpkin, played by Cynthia D. Barker. Both
Johnson and Barker portray their passionate characters
without holding anything back. Keith Arthur Bolden
adeptly handles the role of easygoing Com who
repeatedly tries to tamp down simmering hostility
between hotheads Blue and P-Sam. Enoch Armando
King owns the role of P-Sam—showing tenderness in
one scene professing his affection for Pumpkin and in
another scene exploding in anger at Blue.
Added to the drama is the arrival of Silver, a
mysterious and seductive woman from Louisiana, who
is equally captivating to the men as well as Pumpkin.
Tangela Large exemplifies Silver’s sensuality and
strength in her body language and the delivery of her
lines.
Director Jamil Jude has done well guiding
and managing such a strong cast and the result is a
production that shines.
Set designer Moriah and Isabel Curley-Clay,
recipients of seven Suzi Bass Awards, have envisioned
and created a two-story set that gives the audience
multi-dimensional views of the club, an upstairs
bedroom where all sorts of interaction plays out and
the street and community beyond.
Paradise Blue, staged at the Southwest Arts Center
in Atlanta, runs through Oct. 20.
