‘The Last Play by Rickérby Hinds’: A Black Honduran immigrant tells his story

Khalif J. Gillett / Grettel Cortes

LOS ANGELES—“What if I write a play…about not being able to write a play?” Widely produced playwright and pioneer of Hip-Hop theater Rickérby Hinds has come to an impasse. He’s been commissioned to write a new play but uncharacteristically finds himself blocked. A host of his previous characters taunts him, but all they offer is a chaotic stew of old scenes, comedic sport, and music in a disorderly mashup of people and time frames.

Scene by scene, the architecture of a piece of theater under construction is exposed. The audience is introduced to just about all the conventions of theater, including the by now somewhat formulaic “land acknowledgment” that Rickérby dares to satirize. If presenters are so serious about the Indigenous people’s “unceded” land, why don’t they just give it back, he asks. And we witness up close the processes, many subconscious, by which a playwright arrives at using these familiar tropes.

What emerges is a moving memoir of a young Afro-Latino immigrant who finds a home straddling the many communities he encounters in America: His Spanish-speaking fellow Hondurans and other Latinos, the Hip-hop crowd that has come to dominate African-American discourse, and the people he meets on every level of cultural expression, from his early forays into writing for the stage, to getting produced, to fitting now and then into theater companies’ traditional “Black slot” in their season programming, to workshopping a new play with the “imaginistas” of the Latino Theater Company, to the world premiere production we are attending now.

Last Play is a rant—“words are spells in our mouths”—a gauntlet thrown down to challenge every expectation we might have entertained before entering the theater, a nod to Pirandello’s absurdist 1921 Six Characters in Search of an Author, which similarly asks us to rethink what is theater anyway? Hinds also references Shakespeare, author of the much-quoted observation, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” It would be impossible in a short review to recapitulate all the culture, history, tradition, memory, and lore that went into this play. One minute we’re in a subway car listening to bravura Hip-Hop recitations that test the comprehension of a new immigrant boy, or listening to a childhood recall of the playwright’s father, and the next we find ourselves amidst a knowledgeable audience singing along to Vicente Fernández’s classic song “El Rey.” (And the actor portraying Hinds, Khalíf J. Gillett, has a great voice!)

Hinds has found the perfect director for his play, Daphnie Sicre. “I’ve been following and writing about Rickérby’s work for 15 years, including for my dissertation,” says Sicre, who earned her PhD in Educational Theater with a specialization in Afro-Latiné Theater, Hip-Hop Theater, and Theater of the Oppressed. “What I love about this play in particular is that it’s so playful and so much fun. Playwrights always think that they’re in control of the characters and worlds they create. But who’s really in charge?” In addition to directing, Sicre acts as dramaturg for the production.

Why his last play? Well, maybe it’s just a literary conceit—naming it his last may only have opened the gate and liberated him to pursue his next project. But perhaps it’s true: Hinds has achieved a level of success far exceeding the laws of probability for a 13-year-old immigrant from Honduras—a “puro catracho”—to South Central L.A., and is simply tired of the game. Yet, in one tongue-in-cheek but telling passage, the author receives the news of August Wilson’s death with pleasure, believing his own plays might now be considered to fill that “Black slot.” Hinds’ success, though it encompasses a Fulbright Fellowship, a tour of his work throughout Eastern Europe, the film My Name is Myeisha which he co-wrote and produced, a university faculty position and numerous awards, seems to have plateaued at the regional theater level—hardly a negligible achievement, but maybe not the Broadway of his dreams. A special spot of forced humility is reserved for those playwrights whose plays are “included in anthologies,” where they are resigned to DIE (read: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity).

Bridging as many worlds as it does, Last Play is bound to confound theatergoers, precious few of whom will appreciate all the genres the playwright exploits. It pays to just have an open mind and allow this incredibly talented cast of seven to romp their way into your heart. One especially touching scene has a renegade from modern-day Compton encountering Harriet Tubman, “conductor” of the Underground Railroad during slavery times, each talking past one another in bewildered estrangement—one generation just not getting what makes people of another generation tick. In another scene, the entire cast joins in on a piquantly arranged version of the spiritual “Hold On,” which got me to imagining if they’d ever consider doing a whole concert together. Each of these performers is at least a triple-threat as actor, dancer, and singer. Thanks to director Sicre, it’s a meticulously conceived ensemble work that will truly enchant any theatergoer.

Aside from Mr. Gillett as the playwright Rickérby, the often choral-speaking cast includes Rogelio Douglas III, Jasmine Gatewood, Lee Harris, Darius M. Johnson, Celia Mandela Rivera, and Breayre Tender, all of them fleet of foot and melodious of tone. The creative team includes scenic designer Christopher Scott Murillo, lighting designer Alejandro Melendez, sound designer John Zalewski, video projections designer Omar Ramos, costume designer Wendell C. Carmichael, and choreographer Marissa Herrera. The production manager is May Congxiao Fei, the assistant director is Larry Mayorquin, and the production stage manager is Ashley Weaver, who is assisted by Andrea Lopez. Lee Harris and Shannon J. Sharpe are understudies.

The Last Play by Rickérby Hinds runs through May 25 with performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. The Los Angeles Theatre Center is located at 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, 90013. Parking is available for $8 with box office validation at the Los Angeles Garage Associate Parking structure, 545 S. Main St. (between 5th and 6th Streets, just behind the theater). For more information and to purchase tickets, call (213) 489-0994 or go to the company website. The play runs without intermission for about 90 minutes. An interview with the playwright can be viewed here.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Eric A. Gordon

Eric A. Gordon, People’s World Cultural Editor, wrote a biography of radical American composer Marc Blitzstein and co-authored composer Earl Robinson’s autobiography. He has received numerous awards for his People's World writing from the International Labor Communications Association. He has translated all nine books of fiction by Manuel Tiago (pseudonym for Álvaro Cunhal) from Portuguese, available from International Publishers NY.