My review: Ain't no Mo
Premise:
âThe powers that be have reassured me thereâs room for everyone,â declares Miss Peaches, the drag queen flight attendant tasked with welcoming the entire Black population of the United States to Gate 1619 for a free one-way flight back to Africa.
The play's structure consists of a series of skits, with Miss Peaches serving as the glue that holds them together. The skits include:
- A funeral for Black people's "Right to Complain" because Obama is president.
- A woman talking with her dead husband's ghost at the abortion clinic.
- A TV show about baby mamas and a white woman who considers herself "transracial."
- A rich Black family hiding the literal personification of Blackness in their basement.
- Prison inmates being released after serving long sentences.
Thoughts:
I legitimately donât know how I feel about this play. When I walked out, I felt torn about whether I liked it or not. Over the course of days, I kept flip-flopping between âItâs not deepâ and âMaybe itâs deep,â or âScathing satire? Scathing to who?â to âOh, maybe itâs more clever than I thought.â My wife reluctantly became my debating partner because something about this play both clicks and doesnât click. I donât want to give it a rating because my feelings about it are so complicated.
Also, trying to talk about a play that is so much about the Black experience as an Asian-American woman feels... weird. But hereâs the thing: James Joyce once said, âIn the particular is contained the universal.â
I think this play is a great work of art. There are parts that I deeply understood. The concept of hiding your âBlackness,â for example, resonated with me as a woman with immigrant parents. The dialogue and monologues are beautifully written in many places. But I also have a lot of criticisms. The skits vary in quality. Some are thought-provoking; others left me bored. So, so bored.
The âBaby Mamaâ skit is exhilarating because itâs legitimately hilarious (the Rachel Dolezal-esque character is a highlight). It's also uncomfortable: the white director keeps interrupting to demand the women perform their lines with more "blackness". On the other hand, the prison skit felt overly sentimental and overstayed its welcome. My main criticism is that a lot of the material feels half-baked. The pacing feels very off. Peaches, the main character, doesn't really have that much stage time!
Unfortunately, I only liked 2 skits out of the 5. The other three felt lacking.
Masterpiece:
Iâm going to say it: the masterpiece of Ainât No Mo is Peachesâ monologue about the word âeasy.â
In this scene, a passenger refuses to board the airplane. (Fun fact: if you turn back, youâll be turned into a white man!) Peaches begs the passenger to move forward. The passenger protests, saying it isnât easy. Peaches then delivers a monologue about how being Black is inherently not easy. She says, âEasyâ isnât good; she doesnât trust âeasy.â
The writing here is sublime, and the actorâs performanceâJesus Christ. Peaches, because she is a drag queen, shares how she was recently beaten by a group of Black men. Tearfully, she acknowledges that she will most likely have to see them again. She will have to scan their tickets and be on the same plane as they leave the country together. This isn't easy.
I wish I had the transcript. This was a monologue in a tiny theaterâsuper intimate. I was so close I could see the subtle ways the actorâs face moved. This moment overshadows the rougher edges of the play, in my opinion. It's a masterclass in monologue giving. This is the magic of theater! This monologue makes you cry. It makes you laugh. It was one of the most profound, intimate connections Iâve ever had with art. I would recommend seeing Ainât No Mo just for this moment. Honestly, Iâd love a proshot of this monologue alone.
Conclusion:
This is what hit me:
A week later, Iâm still thinking about the play. Fuckâit is thought-provoking!
I recommend it, then, because itâs made me think so deeply about what itâs trying to say. I donât care if Ainât No Mo isnât the âperfectâ piece I imagined. Frankly, Iâm exhausted by the expectation that stories written by non-white creators have to be perfect. Remember how Disney dismissed Turning Red because it didnât meet sales expectations? My criticisms donât diminish the fact that I think Ainât No Mo is a great piece of art. It may not be my all-time favorite theater piece, but it communicated something to meâand thatâs all I ask of theater.