There are two specific places in Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm’s P.Y.G. or the Mis-Edumacaton of Dorian Belle that are likely to change every time this play (which premiered in Washington, D.C., this past April) hits the stage. One is a montage of news reports on unarmed Black people killed by police and other acts of white supremacist terror, such as Charlottesville. The other is a scrolling list of rappers killed in 2018—in the script’s stage directions, Chisholm provides a list, adding “update accordingly” for the latter. Lili-Anne Brown’s staging for Jackalope updates both segments—the montage opens with Atatiana Jefferson’s killing and the scroll includes Nipsey Hussle.
Chisholm’s play steers away from easy didacticism even as he takes shots at everything from Hamilton to hip-hop artists who embellish their street cred. (Alexand keeps reminding Black that they’re from Naperville, not Chicago.) But the biggest satirical gats come out in a running series of television ads aimed squarely at unexamined white privilege—all featuring a gallery of storefront stalwarts marketing things like “White Man Shoes,” footgear that magically allows you to cut lines and stand on the backs of others, and “White-Coy,” an app that lets Black people call for a white “ally” so they don’t get arrested (or shot) for existing in public.
Through 12/21: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Thu 11/14 and 11/21, 8 PM, Jackalope Theatre, Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway, jackalopetheatre.org, $35 reserved, $27 general.
