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‘Angela’s Mixtape’ @ Synchronicity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B-
Eisa Davis was still in her mother’s womb when her aunt became one of the most famous political prisoners of the 20th century.
In 1970, after Angela Davis’ gun was used in the murder of a California judge, she became the third woman in history to make the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. Though the Communist Party member and Black Panther sympathizer was later acquitted, the episode has both shadowed and enriched her family’s story ever since.
In her autobiographical play, “Angela’s Mixtape” — a Synchronicity Performance Group world premiere directed by Liesl Tommy — Eisa Davis tries to come to terms with the events and relationships that have shaped her own politics, art and complicated personal identity.
In her play, Eisa’s character (Ayesha Ngaujah) becomes a musical mix master with a dizzying sample kit of personal anecdotes, poetry and pop music snippets of every genre. The intermissionless, 105-minute “mixtape” she loops together succeeds in finding a rambling, improvisational style of storytelling that wobbles on a random groove of its own: quirky, self-indulgent, confusing, in need of a good edit, but consistently fascinating and technically polished.
In laying down her song of herself, Eisa appears, for better or worse, to be dumping a lifetime of journal entries. She interlaces her own memories with quotes from her aunt’s autobiography, hop-scotching from Birmingham (where the Davis family lived) to Berkeley and Oakland, Calif. (where they ended up).
Eisa was heavily influenced by her aunt (played by Minka Wiltz), a college professor who wore purple clothes, smoked a pipe and entertained the likes of Toni Morrison. But if you think Angela was something, wait until you meet Eisa’s mom, Fania (Naomi Lavette), an ardent vegetarian who smoked pot and engaged in radical politics and protests. “No TV, no sugar, no meat, no preservatives, no synthetic fabrics,” her mother declares.
Out of these strong, vivid personalities, however, spring Eisa’s concerns and insecurities about her own identity. She never knew her father. She’s accused by her mom of not having enough black friends. And she comes to realize that her aunt’s celebrity is a prison that keeps them apart. “These bars are in the way,” Eisa tells her aunt, providing what seems to be the play’s big epiphany.
(It’s worth pointing out that in real life, Davis will perform in the Broadway musical “Passing Strange,” opening Thursday, and her play “Bulrusher” was nominated for a 2007 Pulitzer Prize.)
Though “Angela’s Mixtape” loses its focus along the way and has a few extraneous scenes (Angela’s interview with the rapper Ice Cube, for instance), it is rich in humor and wonderful performances. Besides Wiltz and Ngaujah (both excellent), Greta Glenn and Jeanette Illidge offer delightful sketches of everyone from Eisa’s grandmother (Glenn) to her prissy high school friends (Illidge).
Like life, “Angela’s Mixtape” is purposefully inconclusive and offers no easy answers. Its revolutionary discovery is that the Davis women are just as fraught and flawed as the rest of us. The beat of their boombox is fierce, but fun.
The 411: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 7 p.m. Sundays. Through March 16 $15-$20. Synchronicity Performance Group, 7 Stages, Back Stage Theatre, 1105 Euclid Ave., Little Five Points. 404-484-8636, synchrotheatre.com.
Bottom line: Angela Davis’ niece tries to find her own groove. Slightly flawed, but fun and fascinating.
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