Yet emphasis falls by default on the figure’s long, tragic decline rather than his still-controversial ’60s glory days. Within his agitated portrayal there’s much sly humor, and traces of the inspiring charisma Newton both deployed and disavowed. Smith (who appeared in Mario Van Peebles’ recent “Panther” pic, though not as Newton) bears a striking resemblance to his subject. He alludes to myriad cultural reference points, from Shakespeare to the film “Black Orpheus.” As he falls apart in front of us, the burden of past expectations grows insupportable. Instead, Huey primarily muses on abstracts: the “Good Negro” and other racist stereotypes, Eastern religious teachings, his queasy relationship to fame (“A leader’s not a real person, he’s just a symbol, an idol … then he becomes an object of contempt”). Internal party struggles, violent incidents (many tied to FBI harassment), ac-tivist milestones, et al., are at most alluded to. But aside from reciting the Black Panthers’ famous early 10-point program list of demands (benefiting all black citizens) from the government, Newton here evades direct commentary on his tumultuous Panther years. His chain-smoking memory-rap drifts from bittersweet Oakland childhood memories to prison incarceration. Smith remains seated in a chair on a platform throughout, rising just once to pantomime a frantic shadow-boxing dance that evolves into substance-withdrawal spasms. More shading would be welcome, befitting a figure then (and now) vilified as a gangster by some whites while cast in the visionary martyr role by many African-Americans. (Newton died in 1989, shot to death in a street confrontation evidently related to crack addiction.) While undeniably compelling to watch, this slant tends to underline the negative aspects of Newton’s legacy at the expense of his achievements. Whatever time period or subject he’s addressing, his Huey is a jittery, wrecked man at tether’s end. Smith retains that restlessness, but now heightens it via nonstop vocal and physical tics. Such intimacy gave a sense that we were eavesdropping on a mind’s freeform reflection bursts of oratory fervor and drug-addled ranting seemed all the more startling as contrast. –Justin HayfordĪrt accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Roger Guenveur Smith photo by Jay Blakesberg.But in some ways, the rawer “Story” seen before was more complexly fascinating: Smith then offered a Newton whose frequent silences and low-volume utterings implied personal disquietude over his clashing public personae. February 19 through 21: Friday-Saturday, 8 PM Sunday, 3 PM. Museum of Contemporary Art, theater, 220 E. Smith is an electrifying performer, piecing Newton’s writings and recorded interviews into a thrillingly contradictory portrait of a tortured visionary ultimately he forces us to wonder why Newton’s furious demands for “revolutionary” changes like adequate health care, education, and job training for the poor are still unmet. But given the turmoil of Newton’s short life–he was cofounder of the Black Panther Party, an acquitted murderer, a political exile, and a doped-up recluse–only an evening this unsettling could do the man justice. It’s something of an endurance test to witness his bursts of poetry and paranoia, brilliance and buffoonery, as he sits behind a microphone and fidgets under the audience’s gaze as if their attention made his skin crawl. Rather than provide a neat biography of the political activist, philosopher, poet, and crack addict, Smith forces his audience to stomach a mock press interview, as a wired and at times nearly incoherent Newton squirms and flails like an insect pinned to a corkboard. Newton Story on one simple fact: there’s nothing entertaining about Newton or the political life that both inspired and destroyed him. It seems Roger Guenveur Smith based his startling one-man show A Huey P. The UnGala is back! Clic k here for the ticket link for this year's celebration at Epiphany Center for the Arts on Oct.
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