Word: mcneal
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...that Leland attributes to me many of the artistic decisions of the play--the choice of Michael McNeal as Clay, my additions to the Conductor's part, etc., and yet, she doesn't credit me with the casting of Cohen as Lula. I wanted a younger Lula, and the decision to make the character more hysterical from the outset was mine as well. I have studied this play for four years now, and I firmly believe that Dutchman is anything but a subtle play, and Lula is anything but a realistic, "normal" character. She is most certainly not "bitter...
...play's plot is not complicated, involving a conversation between a somewhat disturbed thirty-year old woman Lulu (Jessie Cohen) and a middle-class younger Black man Clay (Michael McNeal) in a New York City subway car. Lulu's accusation of "Uncle Tom" provokes Clay to an angry and bitter tirade which forms the climax of the one-act play. The climax is, however, not followed by an expected resolution: Lulu stabs Clay to death...
Part of the problem is her physical presence on the stage. Instead of the "tall, slender, beautiful woman with long red hair hanging straight down her back" Amiri Baraka describes, Cohen is slight and much shorter than McNeal...
...McNeal does a good job of responding to Cohen's hysterics, however. He has a plausible amount of skepticism and reserve at the beginning, but waits too long to reveal hint of his inner rage. This results in some difficulties mustering up the emotional heat for his long monologue. Director Charles Guerrero has taken a different and interesting interpretation of Baraka's Clay: this Clay is pin-stripe suited, slightly effeminate, and it is hard to consider him physically threatening...
...production is not bad; McNeal plays a pretty good Clay and the tech works well to reflect the intense nature of the play. Cohen is a problem; without her strong character it is difficult to sustain the dialogue and action of the play. But the essential problem is that it's not great, which is disappointing considering Dutchman's potential...