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IN FORCE

Karamu on Broadway

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By Peter Bellamy, Entertainment Editor

EW YORK-Some stage productions about black ghetto protest are crude, dull and repetitious, while others are highly theatrical and exciting. Among the latter is "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death," a musical for which the amazingly talented Melvin Van Peebles wrote the book, words and music. He is the same Van Peebles who made several million dollars on the film "Sweet Sweetback.

As presented at the Ambassador Theater, the musical not only seethes with fury at the injustices visited upon blacks, but teems and throbs with life and tragedy as surely as did the Catfish Row set in "Porgy and Bess.

The average white spectator is thrown off balance at the outset as the orchestra plays "The Star Spangled Banner." A few of the white viewers immediately rose the night I saw the show, but others were half standing and half sitting.

THEY SEEM CAUGHT between the desire to honor the nation's anthem and a feeling that they should not stand in tribute to what might be an ironic rendition of the song.

The opening scene with dramatic symbolism presents ghetto characters, including a pimp, prostitute, junkie, drug-pusher, homosexual, beggar, lesbian, mugger, cops, scavenger and a huge rat, all dancing around a Maypole.

The ribbons of the Maypole are controlled by a grotesque caricature of a bloated white man at the top of the proscenium. In a scene almost at the end of the show the figures are still dancing around the Maypole, but the ribbons collapse and “whitey” is no longer visible.

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In the last song of the show, "Put a Curse on You,' Minnie Gentry, the distinguished alumna of Karamu Theater, invokes dire curses upon those responsible for the creation and preservation of black oppression.

The lyrics, detailed description of the shames and humiliations-economic, social and physical-which it wants visited upon the white oppressors and their children, is shocking and unforgettable.

I was somewhat reassured when I paid my respects to Miss Gentry in her dressing room after the show and she specifically absolved me of the curse.

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THE STAGE SET by Kert Lundell immeasurably heightens the mood and tense of the ghetto and accents its blunt message that the black man simply will not tolerate being treated as a second-class citizen, or worse, anymore.

It serves variously as a jail cell, jail corridor, entrance to an execution chamber, tenement room, bar, fire escape, orange juice stand or street scene. A battered car and traffic light are at center stage.

Martin Aronstein's lighting emphasizes the intense feelings of rage, indignation and pathos of the ghetto.

Words and pantomime are used to suggest such · things as a bus or a jailhouse. A gleaming tubular contraption symbolizes a luxury automobile-a status product both in and outside the ghetto.

At one point a lesbian sings a love song to her girl · friend on the upper stories of a jail. It is sadly reminiscent of those who stand on E. 21st Street trying to communicate in loud tones with loved ones on the upper stories of Cuyahoga County Jail.

In the main the musical emphasizes the soliloquy with members of the cast joining only for occasional street scenes or bloody race riots. The cast is all black with white characters being played by black actors with white masques. Some of the language is rough.

One of the songs relates in bitter terms to the anger of ghetto black women who are sick and tired of giving their money to black men only to receive sex and children in return, with no sense of responsibility on the part of the male.

DURING THE action there is a bloody race riot, a pimp administers a brutal beating to a prostitute, dope peddlers push their wares, criminals are seen paying off whitey and selling hot merchandise, and a black and a white policeman blackmail an innocent girl into sex acts.

"Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death" in no way reflects middle class black life, but its several aspects of ghetto life as regards large American cities would seem to have the ring of truth.

Director Gilbert Moses, a Karamu alumnus, has made of the show an explosive meld of action and emotion.

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