Southern Promises

See it if you want to see a production as formally provocative as Thomas Bradshaw's writing.

Don't see it if you dislike uncomfortable and disturbing theatrical experiences

See it if you'd like to see the revival of an important play about the relations between slave & master in the pre-emancipation US South.

Don't see it if you prefer characters to cartoons.

Also “Southern Promises” (2008) appeared before a spate of new plays dealing with slavery in the US. In the past year alone NYC has seen several productions looking at life in the slaveholding South (“Sugar in Our Wounds,” “The House that Will Not Stand,” “Behind the Sheet,” “The American Tradition,” “The Long Rail North”); 2 of this season’s most distinguished new works (“Slave Play,” “White Noise”) transfer the master-slave dynamic to today. They all speak directly or indirectly to current race relations. “Southern Promises” helped pave the way for the newer plays & is most interesting when considered with its successors. This revival makes lots of sharp observations about slave & master. And yet, being a savage farce, its characters are understandably cartoon-like, which limits empathy & complexity & its application to our racial moment. But the opening sequence, smart, poignant, heartfelt direct remarks from the large cast of color, many mixed race, moved, enlightened & heartened me.... Read more Read less