An Octoroon – Location, Tickets, Reviews
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Appropriate) adapted The Octoroon, a 1859 Abolitionist melodrama by Irishman Dion Boucicault, into a provocative, controversial, and (almost) entirely new play, An Octoroon at Soho Rep.
In An Octoroon, George, the heir to his uncle’s plantation, tries to save the property (the land, materials, and slaves) from being sold to M’Closky, a malicious overseer. Both men are infatuated with the same woman, Zoe, an “octoroon.”
An Octoroon utilizes a meta-framing device: it begins with a character named Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (played by Chris Myers) describing the challenges he faces as a black playwright, including finding white actors willing to act in his plays. A second playwright, Dion Boucicault (Danny Wolohan), then arrives and laments his descent to historical oblivion. Both playwrights then act in their joint version of The Octoroon. The character Jacobs-Jenkins paints his face white and plays George and M’Closky and the character Boucicault paints his face red to play Wahnotee, a Native American. In this version, modern and classical language appear side-by-side and parody merges with real drama.
Maxamoo
Jacobs-Jenkins presents a bold production that is hilarious, fearless, refreshing, and exciting. It makes the audience laugh whole-heartedly while at the same time being uncomfortably self-conscious, and contains rich commentary on theater as an art, melodrama as a genre, and the discussion of race in art and life. An Octoroon offers no solutions to the contemporary dilemma of race in America and that’s a good thing — it challenges and provokes the audience without lecturing it. Also, watch for a cameo by Jacobs-Jenkins, the real one this time, he is dressed as a bunny.
Public Opinion
Tickets are going fast and the show has already been extended twice. From Twitter:
@thekatyen: An Octoroon @sohorep is breathtaking and most importantly BOTH highly intelligent and visually entertaining. THIS is theater at its finest!
@diepthought: It’s only intermission and I’m pretty sure Branden Jacobs-Jenkins An Octoroon @sohorep may be the race play I didn’t know I’ve always wanted
@SarahMatusek: Speechless. Run to see AN OCTOROON. @sohorep
Critics’ Reviews
New York Times
Old Times There Are Not Forgotten
New York Post
‘An Octoroon’ shocks, awes with outrageous riff on slavery
Time Out New York
Soho Rep’s Sarah Benson helms a tremendously exciting production, moving and chilling and surprising at once, that turns the slender Soho Rep black box over to its best steward and designer, Mimi Lien.
New York Theatre Review
The excellent cast, original music, and imaginative design easily make An Octoroon the most sensory and exciting production I’ve seen this year.
Stage and Cinema
Now this is how you adapt a play
TheaterMania
Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something black: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins puts a new twist on an old American play
TICKETS
$35-$75 (click here for tickets)
DATES
Performances through June 8, 2014
LOCATION
Soho Rep
46 Walker Street
New York City
[google-map-v3 width=”250″ height=”250″ zoom=”13″ maptype=”roadmap” mapalign=”left” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”46 Walker Street, New York, NY{}1-default.png{}Soho Rep” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]
RUNNING TIME
2 hours 15 minutes, 1 intermission
NEWS
New York Times
Returning to an ‘Impossible’ Role
Theatre Communications Group
Feel That Thought
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Based on a play by Dion Boucicault
Directed by Sarah Benson
Featuring Shyko Amos. Jocelyn Bioh, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Amber Gray, Ben Horner, Chris Myers, Zoë Winters, Danny Wolohan