Founding Mother confronts her complicity in Steppenwolf's 'Miz Martha Washington'
"The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington" -
Martha Washington has a lot to answer for, and the Black people she and her husband enslaved do their darnedest to make sure she does in James Ijames provocative "The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington" in its Chicago-area premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre.
Ijames, who won this year's Pulitzer Prize for his play "Fat Ham," tips his hat to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" in his wry and scathing dark dramedy that holds to account Martha - self-described "mother of America" - for her part in perpetuating slavery.
Director Whitney White's bravura production features fearless performances by a cast that includes Sydney Charles, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Celeste M. Cooper, Nikki Crawford, Cindy Gold, Victor Musoni and Donovan Session.
Like Dickens, Ijames sets the action on Christmas Eve during which the widowed Martha (a masterful Gold), like Ebenezer Scrooge, is confronted by her wrongdoings in the hope that she will recognize her sins and repent before time runs out. As it turns out, Martha has little time left.
The action takes place at Mount Vernon, which set designer Clint Ramos surrounds with cotton plants, a reminder of the slave labor that created many Founding Fathers' wealth. Upstairs, Martha is on her well-appointed deathbed, where she's tended by her half-sister and slave Ann Dandridge (a quietly conflicted Crawford). Outside, the estate's enslaved Black people wait patiently for her death, upon which they will be free, per George's will.
Among those waiting is Ann's son William (Musoni), who calls Martha Auntie Granny for reasons revealed later.
The action unfolds as a 90-minute hallucination performed vaudeville-style and loaded with pop culture references (game shows, rap music and "The People's Court" all figure prominently). During this fantastical fever dream - enhanced by Izumi Inaba's deliciously outlandish costumes - as Martha defends herself against charges that she is complicit in crimes against humanity, she shifts from fear to anger to defiance. She insists to those she enslaved she's "done everything to make your lives better" by rescuing them from a "savage land." She rationalizes her failure to set the Black people free following the death of George (Clemons-Hopkins, who hilariously plays the dead president as a cross between Jay-Z and a pre-Kardashian Kanye West). As a woman, "what could I do?" she says, "I couldn't own a teacup."
Finally, she justifies her behavior in the way so many scoundrels cite their privilege and excuse their inhumanity. "It was the way it was," she says.
It's no excuse.
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Location: Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago, (312) 335-1650, steppenwolf.org
Showtimes: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 9. Also 2:30 p.m. Sept. 28, no 8 p.m. show that day
Running time: About 90 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $20-$96
Parking: $15 in the Steppenwolf parking lot; limited street parking
Rating: For adults, includes strong language, mature themes
COVID-19 precautions: Masks required