Mainline Times: BLACK PEARL SINGS! is "A Magnificent Play"

BLACK PEARL SINGS really strikes a chord in Bonnie Squires at Mainline Times.  Check out these excerpts to see why she loved the show:

Village View: A play, a book and the reality of our race relations

By Bonnie Squires

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Ever since my husband and I went to see “Black Pearl Sings!” at the InterAct Theater, we can’t stop thinking about the play and its many levels of meaning. The Frank Higgins play is a springboard for resuming something really important which has been submerged in the outcry against British Petroleum Oil and the disaster occurring in the Gulf of Mexico: the national conversation on race relations. Which almost had its jump-start with the election of our first African-American president.

But the recession, Afghanistan and now BP all intervened and interrupted what should have been an ongoing discussion of race relations in America. And inequality in its many forms. And what has — and has not — been done to ameliorate the racism and prejudice which shows its ugly head at every opportunity.

“Black Pearl Sings!” puts everything into focus. The action takes place in 1935 but it could easily have taken place today.

... Frank Higgins, who is white, has created a magnificent play which is guaranteed to make every theatergoer, black or white, uncomfortable. And rightfully so.

... And Seth Rozin, the director and co-founder of InterAct Theater Company, has a special knack for bringing out compassion and empathy, even in characters who are not the most appealing to begin with.

... the compelling, cynical character of Pearl (C. Kelly Wright), with her amazing voice and repertoire of songs to comfort her as she drags her ball and chain into the visitors’ room of the jail, is designed to move us.

... You really need to see “Black Pearl Sings,” which is here through Sunday. And then sit down with “The Other Wes Moore” and think on race relations in America today.

Links to more information about BLACK PEARL SINGS!:

Read Bonnie Squires' Full Mainline Times Review

Purchase Tickets Now

Read J. Cooper Robb's Philadelphia Weekly Review

Read Kimberly Roberts' Philadelphia Tribune Review

Read Wendy Rosenfield's Philadelphia Inquirer Review

Listen to Music Featured in BLACK PEARL SINGS!

Play Description, Artist Bios & Performance Calendar

An Interview with Playwright Frank Higgins

Watch a video trailer of BLACK PEARL SINGS! at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C.