The Trial, set in a surreal courtroom, brings suit against old screen images of black women as faithfully doting mammies and sly harlots. Its plaintiff, citing these images as the bane of her existence, is a real-life bourgeois fox who unwittingly sustains the BAP stereotype. No sooner is court called to order than all hell begins breaking loose in the tension between the three central characters.
Conflict inexorably builds, laced with searing acrimonious wit, as the truth emerges.
Things end on a public service announcement, but by then one has witnessed a powerful rendering of souls cruelly snared in untenable circumstances. Marie-Francoise Theodore and Lester Purry carry an uneven cast. At one point, she illuminates the author's deftly drawn subtext with such power the entire evening seems to come to a halt. Austene Van Williams-Clark is Victoria. She augments her work at Penumbra with a strong range.