In ‘Too Heavy for Your Pocket,’ Who Can Afford Civil Rights?
Jesse GreenOctober 5, 2017:
On the evidence of his play “Too Heavy for Your Pocket,” Jiréh Breon Holder either didn’t get the message or decided to pay it no heed.
The message I mean is the one George C. Wolfe delivered so memorably in his 1986 satire “The Colored Museum.” After that blistering takedown of African-American theatrical clichés, what writer would dare attempt a sincere “Mama on the couch” play or anything smacking of collards, church or “Mr. Boss Man”?
Maybe one who wasn’t born yet. Mr. Holder, who is 27 and a recent drama school graduate, has some distinctly post-ironic ideals. “Theater is the new church,” he has said, “where we go to experience clarity and refreshment as a society.”
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