Defacing Michael Jackson – Location, Tickets, Reviews
Defacing Michael Jackson by Aurin Squire, is a poignant and touching dramatic comedy about race relations in the mid-1980s, told through the eyes of five kids and their love for the King of Pop.
It’s 1984, and Obie, Frenchy, and twins Yellow and Red, all black, lead difficult lives in a poor area in rural Florida. Their only ray of light is Michael Jackson — a role model for many youngsters, especially black children, at the time. Wes, a white boy, moves to the neighborhood and joins their unofficial fan club. Against a backdrop of race riots, urban poverty, broken families, and burgeoning puberty their tight-knit group and the community around them begin to disintegrate.
Michael Jackson stands as a metaphor in the play: his professional and personal downward spiral and separation from his musical and cultural origins is a mirror to the deterioration of urban black communities plagued by crack cocaine abuse, AIDS, and Reaganomics.
Defacing Michael Jackson is still very raw. It is a little too long, the ending is faltering, and there are some moments of unnecessary melodrama but it sends a powerful message in a sophisticated and tender way. The four young actors hold the weight of the play’s difficult subject matter with grace and guts, and create an experience that might not be perfect, but is genuine and piercing.
LOCATION
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
236 East 3rd Street
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
2 hours and 10 minutes, 1 intermission
TICKETS
$25-$30 (click here for tickets)
DATES
Performances through November 24, 2013
REVIEWS
New York Theatre Review
There is a feeling of distance, but also wisdom looking back at your trials from younger years. And this is the feeling that also permeates Aurin Squire’s very personal and moving play Defacing Michael Jackson
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written by Aurin Squire
Directed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj
Featuring Vallon Holcomb, Joey Lozada, Nathaniel Ryan, Tyler Strickland