Review: 'V to X' a brutal story of prison life
In V to X, local playwright Kash Goins touches a lot of nerves, then pushes down hard on all of them. His forceful, searing prison drama evokes the misfortunes of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray, and his characters depict the lives that not only don't matter in the media or society but that "no one even knows are here."
In V to X, local playwright Kash Goins touches a lot of nerves, then pushes down hard on all of them. His forceful, searing prison drama evokes the misfortunes of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray, and his characters depict the lives that not only don't matter in the media or society but that "no one even knows are here."
With up to 1.5 million black men incarcerated in the United States, V to X ("five to 10") is a timely, hard-hitting chronicle of their stories told over a three-year span, from an ebullient New Year's Eve celebration in 2012 (lots of mentions of hope after President Obama's second inauguration) to the same party (minus a few departed inmates) in 2015.
The long timeline shares some things with The Shawshank Redemption, sans any semblance of optimism or happy ending. Rather than simply paint a bleak portrait of life behind bars, Goins' realism blends fraternal teasing and solidarity of the prisoners with the harsh realities of trading inmates for favors, subtle threats as enticements to protection, complicity of the correctional officers in the network of drugs and turf battles inside the prison walls. The warden (Michael Tamin Yurcaba) of the fictional Gentry Correctional Facility operates less as a villain than a Scrooge seeking profit by extending the stays of his prison population.
Goins' episodic narrative centers on a group of inmates in Cell Block D. Led by Wolf (a heartbreaking performance by Damien Wallace) and Strawberry (Tiffany Barrett), a preoperative transsexual, their crew runs a drug trade enforced by Reefy (Michael Way, terrifying in his quiet malice).
A side plot focuses on "Bitch Baby" (Jaron C. Battle), an inmate stuck in the system for years without trial or ability to post bail. Battle's agonizing portrayal of a potentially mentally ill teen (inspired by the story of Kalief Browder) stuns with its emotional intensity. The rest of the inmates win little sympathy in a work that erupts with tragic power and vicious humor (things I found appalling tickled many in the audience).
Britt Plunkett's stage design amplifies the potency of Goins' script; she surrounds the audience with bars, and lines the aisles with bunks, forcing us to live the drudgery and horror alongside the actors.
Despite a few cliches, the culmination of the story lines parallels MacBeth by way of Star Wars and, in its sense of cyclical tragedy, reminds of Sophocles. Without intervention, another year behind bars will bring the same sobering story.
THEATER REVIEW
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V to X
Through Oct. 25 at the Skybox at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St.
Tickets: $20-$25. Information: www.gokashproductions.com
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