In Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company’s “Ain’t No Mo’,” running through Aug. 24 at Balzer Theater in downtown Atlanta, Black people are given the opportunity to stage-left themselves out of America and resettle in Africa.
It’s a proposal that many in the African American diaspora have debated for decades, and, with white supremacy on the rise in the United States, many view hightailing it out of the country as a pretty good idea.
Well, mostly.
The satirical juggernaut that is “Ain’t No Mo’” — a nominee of multiple Tony Awards during its limited Broadway run in 2022 — uses vignettes of the current state of Black America to examine who’s ready to go, who wants to stay and the value of fighting for what’s been built.
Credit: Photo by Casey Gardner Ford
Credit: Photo by Casey Gardner Ford
It’s a good question. Those in jail might view leaving the country as an opportunity to start anew, while Black people who have assimilated and gained wealth will ponder whether it makes sense to give up what they’ve earned.
And what if you’re gay or transgender and have never been supported by those who look like you? Do you go with them, or do you stay put?
The decisions are weighty, but the production handles them with over-the-top humor that is equal parts insightful, cringeworthy and painful.
For instance, a segment dubbed “The Real Baby Mamas of the Southside” hypes up the stereotypes of Black women on reality TV — loud, self-centered and oblivious that they’re the butt of the joke. A Rachel Dolezal-type character (Sierra Nicolette Smith), who insists she can switch from being a white woman to a Black woman because it is her truth, is as ridiculous as it sounds.
But when the show’s director calls out one of the women for forgetting to use Ebonics to argue her point, it reveals how even those who aim to entertain and humiliate an audience are prone to manipulation themselves.
The play suggests no one is coming to save the community. Former President Barack Obama is piloting the flight out of the country. His co-pilot? Former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Be nice; she’s already promised that if you got weed on board, she will look the other way,” says Peaches (Jason Jamal Ligon), the gate agent who’s boarding passengers on African American Airlines Flight 1619 bound for Senegal.
Balancing such moments can be tricky. Author Jordan E. Cooper, the youngest Black playwright in Broadway history, wants us to laugh through very real pain. At the show I attended for review, I could feel the audience tense up as headlines blared over the speakers with actions taken by the courts and the Trump administration to roll back American rights.
That creates a yo-yo effect that can make “Ain’t No Mo’” feel exhilarating at one point — musical references to Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige and even the theme from “The Golden Girls” are a big part of the fun — then bleak the next, whenever the reasons for a Black exodus are revisited.
Credit: Photo by Casey Gardner Ford
Credit: Photo by Casey Gardner Ford
Making that dichotomy easier is a small but extremely talented cast, including the aforementioned Smith and Ligon and fellow cast members Amber A. Harris, Candice Marie Singleton, Tequilla Whitfield and Jay Jones. Each takes on different roles in the vignettes, flexing comedic and dramatic muscles.
Ligon appears to have the most fun as the play’s narrator of sorts. As Peaches, Ligon has the unenviable task of making the audience believe he’s talking to passengers as he stands alone on the stage between the vignettes. As the play’s guide, he is hopeful, exasperated and conflicted as he ushers the invisible crowds on their journey.
Jones also has standout moments, including presiding as a no-holds-barred minister over the death of “Right to Complain” during the opening. (“Right to Complain,” a metaphor for the generations of angst among Black people, “dies” on Nov. 4, 2008, when Obama became the nation’s first Black president. Or so we thought, playwright Cooper points out.)
As a result, Jones’ minister, who is unafraid of using very colorful language before the congregation, says there will be no more riots, suffering, Emmett Tills, “stop and frisk” and white people double-locking their car doors “when they just saw you drive up in a car they can’t even afford,” he quips.
Harris is also stunning as “Black,” the physical embodiment of the self that some Black people shun on their way to success. Her rapid-fire description of the kind of Black person she is — “Call Tyrone Black,” “Theo Huxtable Black,” “O.J. didn’t do it Black,” “O.J. did it Black” — while running around the stage is something to behold.
In the end, “Ain’t No Mo’” leaves the question of whether to stay or go up to the individual. There’s a lot at stake, and leaving behind the ugliness of the present-day United States has great appeal. But Black America has invested greatly, and it’s important to protect our investment. The question is, can we?
THEATER REVIEW
“Ain’t No Mo’”
Presented by Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company through Aug. 24. Tickets start at $60, with discounts available. Balzer Theater, 84 Luckie St., Atlanta. truecolorstheatre.org.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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