spell #7 by Ntozake Shange

a critique by Korinn Annette Jefferies korinnannette.com

I think one of the harder things about being a consumer of any performing art is that works change. we often enjoy plays while they are in the process being constructed, with a specific cast, a particular director. but when the play is finished and we see it again, something’s missing. 

a character you fell in love with. a monologue. a joke. a gesture.

and sometimes it’s not that the playwright or artist has cut these things out— sometimes, a director makes the decision to flip a playwright’s work upside down and interprets the work in a way you hadn’t considered or a way the playwright hadn’t intended. 

and sometimes it’s the audience or reader— sometimes our own thoughts and experiences change the way we engage with a play.

spell #7 leaves room for interpretation/for diverse reactions/for discussion. 

I love it on paper— and like truly love it because it’s Ntozake Shange and how could you not? — but I don’t know if my imagination can place this piece in a modern theatre and I don’t know that I want to.

when I imagine the opening of spell #7, I immediately see the house of the theatre/the stage/a huge minstrel mask hanging from the ceiling/and seats, a full house, with predominantly white patrons. I see spell #7 in 1979 premiering at the Public Theatre and it’s jarring and new and experimental.

but when I think of spell #7 in 2022, and I still see the audience full of white patrons and the giant minstrel mask hanging from the ceiling or projected on to the curtains, the spectacle of minstrelsy is not as effective. my first thought is Drake in blackface. my next thought is that little boy from Atlanta in white face. 

my primary thought here, however, circles back to Drake. and I’m more appalled than anything cause like, why? I’m already in this theatre with all these white people and here’s this mask/this ginormous minstrel mask is just taunting me and the white people around me in the theatre are talking about it and asking me about it and it wouldn’t feel good. I’m not saying I come to the theatre for comfort but I do wonder what it’s like to sit in that audience, especially when I’ve experienced this audience behavior at Black plays that are less racially charged (specifically Stickfly by Lydia. R. Diamond at Playmakers last year). 

I’m also thinking about the actors. cause when that photo of Drake in Blackface began circulating he responded by telling us it was for a job. so what are the implications of putting Black actors in blackface (masks) in 2022? what harm is done when an actor takes on a role that requires them to embody the stereotypical characters they try so hard to distance themselves from?

the play is led by Lou, a magician, who is wearing a Mr. Interlocutor costume. 

from my understanding, the Mr. Interlocutor character in minstrelsy dons white face and stands in the middle of a semicircle of performers in blackface. I imagine this character operates as a director of sorts, coordinating the performers around him through interactions like jokes and skits.

Lou functions in a similar manner, calling on the performers to remove their masks and share their true selves with the audience with monologues and short scenes.

the content of spell #7 addresses the big dilemma of the Black actor: what are you willing to do to work in your industry? what roles are you willing to play?

spell #7 gives Black actors the space to articulate their frustrations with their industry while reinforcing elements of performance that Black actors find themselves trying to escape. 

the play is cyclical, like many aspects of Black life, and the fate of the Black actor is inconclusive. 

most scholarship about spell #7 addresses the piece as a response to negative criticism Shange has faced for her depiction of Black men on stage. 

and this is a hard one for me because I think Shange’s very real depictions of Black life make everyone look bad and it just is what it is.

the Black women in her works suffer, tirelessly. Shange’s writing is beautiful and painful for everyone involved. I would hesitate to say that she purposefully makes anyone look bad.

the play is concise. it is very short, and though it is presented in two acts it may not actually be a full length piece.

in 2020, spell #7 was staged at St. Louis Black Rep and a lot of the dialogue surrounding the piece emphasized the relevance of the themes it presents. actors still feel bound to minstrelsy in the characters they are asked to portray and the rooms they are expected to inhabit. and I get that. like 100%.

but I wonder about the other ways we can engage with pieces like spell #7. do we have to stage it to recognize the relevance of these themes? what role can theatre education play in this discussion? Shange’s work deserves the consideration of her thought process as an artist and that context changes the way we interpret her art. 

when we stage pieces that call for this deep interpretation, do we take the time to do the work?