Family Drama River Niger at The Los Angeles Theatre Center
The Los Angeles Theatre Center (514 S. Spring St. Los Angeles, CA 90013)
- Full Price:
- $30.00
- Our Price:
- $15.00*
* Additional fees apply.
All offers for River Niger have expired.
The last date listed for River Niger was Sunday November 29, 2009 / 3:00pm.
Currently at The Los Angeles Theatre Center:
Explosive, Award-Winning Play Short Eyes at LATC
- Full Price:
- $30.00
- Our Price:
- $15.00
For the first time in a decade, Miguel Pinero's award-winning play Short Eyes will be produced in Los Angeles. Julian Acosta directs the production by the Urban Theatre Movement and the Latino Theater Company. Written while the playwright was serving his sentence at Sing Sing prison for armed robbery, Short Eyes charts the racial, sexual and personal politics of a group of inmates at an unnamed house of detention in New York City. The population of the institution is an assembly of racially and ethnically divided cliques in an internally constructed society with its own rules and boundaries, peopled with violent felons, thieves and killers. Into their society comes a new prisoner, a middle-class white man named Clark, accused of child rape and nicknamed "short eyes," the term used by prisoners to brand child molesters. The play debuted at the Riverside Church, moved Off-Broadway in 1974 to The Public Theatre in New York City and to Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater to critical acclaim including six Tony Award nominations, the New York Critics Circle Award and an Obie Award for the Best Play of the Year. Learn More
Goldstar Member Tips
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Goldstar Member on Where to Park
Ample inexpensive parking available on Sunday
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Culture Cat on Where to Park
Sunday parking was $4 in a lot a few doors down
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Goldstar Member on What to Wear
You may dress Los Angeles casual for this venue
Goldstar Member Reviews
Fana Babadayo
Not enough stars to rate The River Niger. Another superb Goldstar offering. The River Niger, deservedly award winning, still manages to draw theater goers in to pack a house - 3 decades after its debut. An excellent production choice by the Robey Theater Company; potent performances given by the central characters and a good supporting cast. I hope to see it again during this run.Written on Nov 16 2009
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UVnLA
GO. Do not miss this production which rivets and captivates from the first minute.Written on Nov 27 2009
The superb cast is in total sync at all times and each player is up to the very complex and subtle nuances of their characters. Though we are well aware of the play's era, the seamless direction and portrayals make you feel it all afresh, with unmistakable and disturbing echoes of the present. In fact, in some ways it's quite unsettling.
It is heavily plotted- the action is obvious and effective. However, what really stands out and gets under your skin are the moments of exquisite delicacy of feeling, often cloaked in humor both quiet and loud. Mr Walker's dialog is at once realistic and poetic. Somehow the actors, all of them, have been able to hook into this and deliver some very difficult lines as if it were normal interactive speech. The effect is not only engrossing but radiant and uplifting.
The many themes- the most important of which are not the obvious plot points- are woven through like shafts of light which gain intensity with each reappearance throughout the action. As a result, the denouement which revolves on a very dramatic turn of events, is transformed into an emotional blaze which illuminates the overall situation as well as the characters as three-dimensional, dynamic figures who live, love and struggle together.
The husband-wife relationship of the main characters attains a nearly unbearable and truthful poignancy rarely found in today's dramatic literature. That it is organically embedded within a very ambitious and kaleidoscopic plot about social and political realities is quite amazing: this is an extraordinary work that really creeps up on you. It's been a week already and I'm still thinking about it.
The Robey Theatre Company is a civic treasure. Do yourself and those you care about a favor- RUN to see this production.
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Goldstar Member
A "Must See". The absolutely riveting performances by the actors make this a four star production. The cast brought you into the zeitgeist of this genre of plays. You feel the pride and struggle of a people in a revolutionary period as well as the pain and suffering of a dysfunctional household. The cast puts you there. The costuming and set were appropriate.Written on Nov 23 2009
I down graded the rating to three stars because the venue is uncomfortable. The stage is floor level and the risers don't provide enough lift to permit you to see actors in scenes that required them to sit almost in the front row of the audience. Also, some pivotal actions performed stage left aren't visible to the audience seated on the right side of the theater due to the necessary positioning of the set's props.
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Henry
Absolutely awesome experience! I was overwhelmed by strength and emotion of this production. The script was excellent and the actors made you believe you were part of this family. I left the theatre feeling that I had witnessed something special.Written on Nov 16 2009
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More Information About River Niger
Website
http://www.robeytheatrecompany.com/
Quotes & Highlights
- A drama of considerable power. --The New York Post
- Leaves you with the impression that you've been inside a living situation in which real people struggle, hope, win, lose, die and live. --Daily World
- The best play of the Season! Brooding, compassionate and luminous. --Bergen Record
- Read the River Niger blog for updates on the production.
Description
Written by Joseph A. Walker
Directed by Dwain A. Perry
Husband, father, house painter, and warrior poet Johnny Williams looks forward to his son Jeff's return as a navigator for the United States Air Force. But Johnny's pride in his son's achievement takes an uncharted turn when Jeff comes home and the family discovers the results of his education. And when Mattie, the matriarch of the Williams family, learns another lethal fact, things begin to unravel. The re-entrance of Mo, Jeff's life-long friend, and Mo's militant followers - with their current take on how to wage "The Revolution" - compounds the already heightened tension in the Williams home. The stakes are very high, but the family is armed with love, devotion, loyalty, and the martial spirit to fight the good fight. Winner of the Obie award the Negro Ensembles Company's production of The River Niger exploded on Broadway at the Brooks Atkins Theatre in 1973.