{"id":11236,"date":"2011-01-04T01:45:46","date_gmt":"2011-01-04T01:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=11236"},"modified":"2014-10-05T20:54:48","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T20:54:48","slug":"a-free-man-of-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=11236","title":{"rendered":"A Free Man of Color [Theater Review]"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Free Man of Color [Theater Review]<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Faster Times
\n<\/a>2010-11-18<\/p>\n

Johnathon Mandell<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Opening Date: 2010-11-18
\nClosing Date: 2011-01-09<\/p>\n

Written by John Guare<\/a><\/strong>
\nDirected by George C. Wolfe<\/strong><\/p>\n

As \u201cA Free Man of Color\u201d begins, its hero, an ex-slave, is a bewigged, bejeweled fop who is the wealthiest and most sexually desirable man in New Orleans<\/a>. Like the character, the play seems to have everything going for it: deeply talented creators, an exciting cast, splendid costumes, a fascinating period in American history. By the end of the play, the character has been destroyed, in a harrowing half hour that is the dramatic and theatrical highlight of the piece. Long before that end, however, the average theatergoer is likely to feel let down by John Guare\u2019s new play. If it frustrates our expectations, \u201cA Free Man of Color\u201d\u2014ambitious, inventive, daring, sprawling\u2014is an honorable failure with much to recommend it, even while it is difficult to sit through.<\/p>\n

Set largely in New Orleans between 1801 and 1806, but wandering around the world, the play, which has now opened at Lincoln Center\u2019s Vivian Beaumont Theater, presents the complex intrigue surrounding the Louisiana Purchase<\/a>, which doubled the size of the United States, and imagines the effects of these actual historical events on fictitious characters.<\/p>\n

The historical tidbits sprinkled throughout the play are tantalizing, especially those with contemporary parallels. To pick one of the more obscure examples: If the 21st century has civil unions for gay people, early 19th century New Orleans had pla\u00e7age<\/a><\/em>, an arrangement between a white man and a woman of color…<\/p>\n

Read the entire review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A Free Man of Color [Theater Review] The Faster Times 2010-11-18 Johnathon Mandell Opening Date: 2010-11-18 Closing Date: 2011-01-09 Written by John Guare Directed by George C. Wolfe As \u201cA Free Man of Color\u201d begins, its hero, an ex-slave, is a bewigged, bejeweled fop who is the wealthiest and most sexually desirable man in New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,459,13,8,6940,20],"tags":[5024,5023,5025,5026],"class_list":["post-11236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-history","category-liveevents","category-media-archive","category-slavery","category-usa","tag-george-c-wolfe","tag-john-guare","tag-johnathon-mandell","tag-the-faster-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}