‘Yanga’ @ Cara Mia and Soul Rep Theatres w/ Mulato Teatro of Mexico
—Chris Sanders
Yanga is a binational, tri-theatrical production from Cara Mia Theatre and Soul Rep Theatre of the United States and Mulato Teatro of Mexico. The play, written by Mulato Teatro’s Jaime Chabaud, tells the story of an African revolutionary in New Spain (now known as Mexico). The plot also follows the tale of his beloved Santiaga and her jealous slave owner, Don Pedro González de Herrera.
Yanga, Santiaga, and Don Pedro are performed by Henry Okigbo, Sydney Hewitt, and Rodney Garza respectively. Each does great work bringing their characters to life. There is a particularly chilling scene between Hewitt and Garza, in the form of an interpretive dance, displaying the forced relations between slave and master. While the actors barely come into physical contact with each other, the space and dance is built with several members of the ensemble. The intensity with which the words were performed, combined with the stimuli of many sounds and moving bodies on set, reveals to the audience how overwhelming the experience was for Santiaga, without being traumatically graphic.
Overall the entire ensemble performs well together. One of the standout characters and performances for me is the role of the Narrator as portrayed by Frida Espinosa Müller. The Narrator is the keeper of time and of the story. Not African, but not white either, the Narrator seemed to be more indigenous, almost reading as a personification of remnants of the land itself, before colonization. The character feels timeless and aged, inspired and emotionally exhausted, a stolen land carrying the tale of a stolen people.
Aiding in the storytelling are ensemble members Jori Jackson, Ryan Matthieu Smith, and Cherie’ Monique Williams. Smith portrays the more benevolent owner (and secret co-conspirator) of the revolutionary Yanga. Jackson and Williams double as two nameless enslaved women, who wordlessly amplify the severity of Santiaga’s situation. Each actor also doubles as an additional voice in the narration.
The performers begin in base clothing, adding neck pieces similar to that of the Narrator when playing parts in the narration. The costumes, designed by Ava Roberts-Kamaria, help to illustrate the divide between the descendants of the conquistadors and those of the enslaved. The enslavers wear bright colors or a mix of white and black, and are often adorned in bejeweled garments. The enslaved primarily wear white and earth tones—with the exception being the Narrator(s) who add the ornate neck pieces to their otherwise neutral clothes.
I appreciate the thought and effort DFW area theaters are putting into using dialect and accent work to help show the distinction between classes and social structures. This production of Yanga, directed by Soul Rep’s Anyika McMillan-Herod, has all of the “white” cast speaking with Spanish accents, while all of the Black cast speak with West African accents. Part of the reason this is so interesting—and important—is seen clearly in the play, when one of the Black characters must drop his accent to adopt that of the slave masters. Similar to a recent area production of Bondage by Star Finch, Yanga shows the necessity of code switching for Black survival.
Nicholas Thornburg has designed an intricate yet simple, stationary yet mobile set—fascinating, if hard to describe. You should see it for yourselves, and see this production of Yanga now, before the show closes at the end of the weekend.
WHEN: February 17-March 3, 2024
WHERE: Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak, Dallas
WEB: caramiatheatre.org
