Review of "Babygirl": Sunday, 22 January, 2012

I have to confess that I realize now I would make a LOUSY critic, because I cannot detach myself from what I am writing about and I don’t think a good critic would take their personal baggage into reviewing a performance. I cannot help but get personally caught up in the moment and get swept away by the actions and bring ALL my goddam emotional baggage into talking about a piece. Therefore, I do not expect the New York Times to be calling me anytime soon! :-)

Sooooooooo…. I have to admit that because this performer was a mixed race woman, fighting an almost surreal fight for self identity, I could not stop thinking about my daughter and son, who are both mixed race, as well as all the issues of my growing up, being a young, intelligent, impressionable, slightly neurotic love-a-holic black boy, in a white society.

A society where on TV, (which did a LOT of babysitting for me,) ALL you saw was white. There were exceptions, of course, like “Good Times,” “The Jeffersons” and “The Cosby Show,” and a few token peppercorns for flava in the white shows, but for every black show, or show with a black person in it, I could quote you 30 all white shows I watched.

Anyway, with my baggage firmly in hand, I give you the review of “Babygirl,” by written and performed by Kaypri.

If the One-Person Show Festival at the WhiteFire was actually part of an acting competition, and there was a category for unusual/unique presentations, I would name “Babygirl” the number one show and instead of a bullet next to the name, I would put a Saturn V Rocket symbol!

It was a very unusual presentation, indeed. It was Achim Freyer-like in it’s desire to tell a somewhat detached story. (Instead of a scrim, like what Freyer would use, Kaypri used a TV set.) And she kept an overarching TV vibe (even with TV music themes) in the forefront of the story being told. The whole play was like watching a TV show. The only thing that would have really got Bertold Brecht spinning in his Teutonic grave would have been to create an entire set that looked like a TV set, including creating a proscenium in the fashion of an old Victrola. That would have been quite radical and would help the audience understand how pervasive a TV addiction is!

Kaypri’s story was about her obsession with TV shows.
No… that’s not right….

Try this…, Kaypri’s story was her obsession with telling the story of her life through her obsession with TV shows.

It felt to me that her life itself was a TV show. It was an amazingly interesting premise.

Every sentence she uttered had a reference somewhere to a TV show she watched as a child. The TV story morphed into her own life in unique ways… One striking example of this was the stroke of her father. The show “Different Strokes” was pre-empted for the new show “Daddy’s Stroke.” Kaypri then told us the story of her father’s stroke from a point of view of a 8 year old. It was a story that was as confused as it was painful to watch, because her 8 year-old mind and spirit filled in any missing details, (or details she didn’t understand,) with the mind and spirit of an 8 year-old child. It was an uncomfortable story to watch. A story which I could totally identify with because it was incredibly like my own.

A few main points I picked up on:

The TV set was her best friend. (Mine too!)
The TV characters were more than just characters, they became REAL! (Me too!)
The TV, with the characters that became real, also became our portal to our acculturation into white society.

However, the joke’s on US! We could NEVER be truly accepted into white society. (Not my generation, at least.)
It’s like trying to become an American Black Jew. It’s a nice attempt, but you’re never truly “in the family.”

Maybe a better example would be Tom Hagen and the Corleones.
Loved? Yes.
Appreciated? Yes.
Given duties and responsibilities? Yes.
Family? The road ends there.

Anyway, Babygirl was a difficult sit. I wanted to run up to that Babygirl and just tell her everything was going to be OK IFFFFFFF she learned to accept herself as a unique emanation of God and stop trying to be like others who didn’t want her around in the first place. Additionally, for a mixed race child, it REALLY sucks if he/she doesn’t come to self-acceptance quickly, as she/he is an truly going to be seen as an outcast in both worlds. One must come to an internal/spiritual peace of self to live in such a lonely space and not feel temporary in both societies.

My God, I could talk about this play and the moral implications for quite some time. It is a unique issue. A unique trial of spirit.
“You gonna be one of them or one of US.” was a line in Kaypri’s play that was told her by an ignoramus, angry, black, tough girl.

What happens if you are both?
What happens if your TV is your best friend and you imprint on the shows on at the time and the shows are primarily white shows?

What happens to a person’s spirit if they just want to be of love and share love and you have all that baggage you have been told to carry?

My God, folks, what a hot mess!!

The bottom line is that “Babygirl” was a profound show that addresses HUGE issues of acceptance for those close to the matter and is a relatively entertaining show for those people absolutely CLUELESS about how big an issue of acculturation AND bifurcation really is.

There were so many little nuggets of incredible humor in the show. A gem was the scene where Kaypri convinced her white mom to take her beauty parlor to get her hair “relaxed.” UNBELIVEABLY FUNNY MOMENT! UNBELIEVABLY TRAGIC MOMENT all at the same time. She wanted to “fit in,” but at what cost? “Babygirl” was full of moments like that.

I was never satisfied with the relationship she described with her father. It always felt like she was 4 years old trying to explain her dad to the audience. He remained distant and unreal to me. I never got to know him and maybe that is because she never got to know him. Her mom comes off like the parent in Charlie Brown… whah whah whah whah whah whah whah whah…… You hear her but you don’t. This is a story that is much more about trying to fit in. Dealing with the addiction of TV…. and Love.
And, like in “Finding Nemo,” going thru the troubles of “Finding Yourself.”
Being a tuba player, I award theater pieces with various tuba models. Lead/Brass/Silver/Gold tuba. It’s my kink, so live with it.

I award “Babygirl” with a used, Silver, Hirsbrunner HB-21 tuba. 4/4 size ‘C’ tuba * .770" bore * 18" bell * 4 piston valves – 1 rotary valve.

It’s not gold and shiny, but it IS a Rolls Royce tuba and it is a perfect metaphor for this play.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming….

KABIN THOMAS