With superb pacing and musicality (and surreal interludes including a game show and a full-on song and dance) Ijames’ Dickensian historical/political fever dream is as darkly funny as it is unsparing. Martha Washington’s deathbed nightmare is a chillingly perfectly allegory for America’s ongoing reckoning with systemic racism and white supremacy: we may benefit, but it’s not our fault! Why should we be punished for systems we didn’t create? And I’m one of the good ones, right?! Martha’s excuses, guilt, and willful ignorance reveal the inextricable link between America’s identity and slavery.
With superb pacing and musicality (and surreal interludes including a game show and a full-on song and dance) Ijames’ Dickensian historical/political fever dream is as darkly funny as it is unsparing. Martha Washington’s deathbed nightmare is a chillingly perfectly allegory for America’s ongoing reckoning with systemic racism and white supremacy: we may benefit, but it’s not our fault! Why should we be punished for systems we didn’t create? And I’m one of the good ones, right?! Martha’s excuses, guilt, and willful ignorance reveal the inextricable link between America’s identity and slavery.