Play Review: Kill Move Paradise

Kill Move Paradise, a play at Howard Community College

(Note: Strobe lights and rough language)

A good movie or play is one that you cannot stop thinking about. Kill Move Paradise is not that kind of play but is still a worthwhile experience though and I recommend it. You may disagree and consider this play over and over again in the coming days. The REP Stage at Howard Community College also provides a therapist during and after the performances for the audience, actors, and staff in case the topic matter touches you too closely.

Written by James Ijames and performed by the REP Stage with final performances in the Studio Theatre at Howard Community College at 8 pm Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, Kill Move Paradise is directed by Danielle Drakes.

This reviewer attended the Saturday matinee and left feeling “nice”: I could hear and understand everything (unusual for many other performances). The set was unique; the acting, good; the content, something we all need to consider in this day and age: Four young black men arrive presumably in heaven or the place just shy of heaven, one by one, and relive their individual demise, presumably at the hands of over-reactive police.

“I remember the age I learned I was scary. Eight.”

The time is now, the place is here. The mood changes so you understand their circumstances and feel the injustice of it all.

The Craft of Acting

Although dramatic (after all, this was a dramatic play), the acting was good and believable; the body language, appropriate to the point of being invisible; body movement, the “dancing,” was spectacular. Each character was so different, so unique that you will like them all and remember them. Dylan Fleming, who plays Isa, does an incredible rendition of a dancing female with all the right mannerisms. I would see the play again just to watch him/her again!

The sweat was real: I was in the first row so I saw it. The audience will even laugh a couple of times.

It would be interesting to participate in an after-performance workshop and discuss which character was the most believable, the most powerful, and had the most significant story.

Three Beards and a Boy

How can a playwright concoct a story of four people, four stories, and have them coalesce, more or less? I believe James Ijames did so, with a common theme that more and more people are becoming aware of today: innocent black men killed by white police.

The Set, The Lighting, The Music, Props, Special Effects, Costumes and More

Since this is a review and not a report, I won’t disclose the similarities among the four young men or how their individual arrivals are announced but you will smile as you recognize what the announcements foretell (by sound and sight). You might also notice how natural the ‘costumes’ are (perhaps the actors used their own clothes) and the fact that with each man’s arrival, the clothing becomes more colorful and the shoes, newer. Of course, this might just be coincidence but in literature and art, there are no coincidences – everything is done for a reason, consciously or subconsciously.

Arriving well before the ‘curtain’ went up (there is no curtain), one sees four columns on each side of the stage, a printer with many pages of print - out to the right, and the stage actually curvilinearly slanting upward towards stage back. Unsettling enough to remark on.

At times an actor seems to interact with the audience and you may reflexively answer their question (but, please don’t do so out loud). In reality, the characters involve the audience in the play and often refer to “those people out there, watching (and sometimes sleeping)”.

The Studio Theatre provides a small intimate experience and, sitting in the front row, I could appreciate the use of the entire stage. At times it was a close call and I feared one of the characters would slip off-stage to the front and me, or to the side, but they were very professional (and athletic) and, with excellent choreography, managed to put on the brakes just in time. Shots were fired and characters fell in sync, the fight was realistic, the entire stage was well-used.

I believe there was a musical background but it was so natural that I don’t remember it. That is what a playwright and a director want – that the audience doesn’t necessarily recall all the elements but does remember the overall effect.

A List of Lists

You will remember the lists: the list of names coming off the printer, the list of objects Daz sees on his way in, the oral roll call.

Questions for You

Knowing nothing about plays or acting, I wonder if the audience distracts the actors since the front row attendees are mere inches from the action at times. Can the actors see our expressions? And who are the ‘they’ that the play refers to?

And was the question of martyrdom versus sacrifice answered to your satisfaction?

Do you think this play could have been titled I Got You?

If you attend Kill Move Paradise, let us know your answers. And tell us about the significance of the title, too!

Tickets may be purchased online at Howardcc.edu - search for Kill Move Paradise. Discounts are available for HCC staff, HCC students, military, retirees and ushers, groups and for certain performances. Tickets are $40.