A Challenging Production For The Modern Audience

Fun Fact: Intimacy consultant Clare Warden worked with the performers on this challenging material. Warden frequently works in film and TV; however, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune was the first recorded production on Broadway to use an intimacy consultant, and now Slave Play.  

Target Audience: Contemporary theatre lovers who are excited to be challenged. 

Best Bit: The audience's response to the first act!   

Open your Playbill for Slave Play and you will see "A Note on Your Discomfort" written by poet, essayist and novelist, Morgan Parker. Parker warns that there is a gun in the first act - a nod to Chekov albeit the gun in Jeremy O. Harris' play is a large black sex toy - and she wisely states the cock of this gun is a long Black memory. Parker's intro seems to serve as both a warning and catharsis for what is to follow. 

Clint Ramos' set design highlights a key focus of Slave Play - reflection. As we look to the stage a reflection of a large plantation house bounces back at us from the mezzanine on oversized mirrored doors which also reflect us the audience. The setting is familiar, we've been here before, we are in this image and to jolt any blurry memories one might have, a black woman appears sweeping the floor. We assume she is a slave, and this instantly simmers pain, regret, anger and the audience are hush. But something is not right? The music jars us back to the current day and our slave, Kaneisha (played on this night by Eboni Flowers), moves her body with a contemporary sensuality and freedom. The white master, Jim (Patrick Alexander Nolan) appears and you can feel the audience tense up almost waiting in anticipation for the expected punishment to follow. The master; however, seems hesitant to enforce his power and the slave rolls around almost begging for a beating to punish her bad behavior, he instead insists that she eats off the floor like an animal, the audience is horrified but the tension in the room starts to shifts gears, there is an apparent sexual tension and the audience continues to be vocal in their response - we're starting to suspect that the absurdity is craving our attention. Their language is not quite accurate to the time and their interaction does not follow the "norm" of this dynamic we've come to know inherently. The mood softens but the rollercoaster of emotions ensues as laughter turns to shrieks and back to bated breath. The woman to my right looks at me with confusion as she exclaims "What are we watching?!"  

Slave Play then jumps to another interaction where a slave, Phillip (Sullivan Jones), is summoned by his master's wife Alana (Annie McNamara), to play on his fiddle. The madam strips down to her lingerie, and then it appears the large black sex toy. As she explains how this dildo has been lovingly passed down from generation to generation the audience roars with laughter as the slave is penetrated, he grimaces and shows signs of arousal - the room now sounds like a sex education classroom with giggles, humiliation and outright horror being expressed by the audience.  

If you think you need therapy after witnessing all that, O. Harris moves to a group counseling session in Act Two as our characters reveal their need for the role plays we have witnessed. A sigh of relief as we assume this is some role-playing kink people are into. Well, not entirely. Harris holds the mirror and places these characters in an experiment to explore a deep-rooted conversation about our desire, pleasure, beauty, power, blackness, whiteness and how we see ourselves.  

Harris is a young Yale graduate making his Broadway debut and this piece of work is profound, the second act lags with talking heads after such a racy teaser in the first act but the complexities explored are riveting.  This play is craving your attention and if you step into the dungeon, Harris has you handcuffed to the bedpost, tickling and teasing with his language as much as he whips and chokes with its themes. 

One thing is for sure, Harris has taken this audience for a wild one-night stand, he has raised a voice from the past and given permission to the all in the present, suggesting our healing is in our passion, our pain, our pleasure, and our power. 

View our show pages for more information about Slave Play, August Wilson Theater.