Black women are simply amazing! Amontaine Aurore’s play “Don’t Call it a Riot” opened on June 1st 2019, at the 12th Ave Arts theater located in the Capitol Hill area. The play was co-produced by Trial and Error Productions and written and directed by Amontaine Aurore herself. Don’t Call it a Riot tells an endearing story of two friends, Marti and Reed, who although growing up together, see their environment and Blackness in two different ways. The play presents historical facts about the Black Panther Party in Seattle, as well as the police brutality during the 60’s.
The work is set during two time periods, the first being Seattle in 1968, beginning with the story of Aaron Dixon and Curtis Harris being arrested from one of the Panthers headquarters. Their crime: stealing a typewriter. The next time period displayed in the play was Seattle in 1999, when young revolutionaries gathered downtown to protest against toxic lead corporations that benefited off the labor of lower class citizens and mistreatment of animals. The play is a reflection of not only generational differences, but also the impact conforming and non- conforming has on Black people.
The script was well written; it was often that I’d hear “mmm”’s and laughter from the audience. The script was written to keep engagement and I feel that’s exactly what it did. Throughout the play there were moments that made you want to laugh, moments where you might have to hold back tears, and most importantly moments where you yourself wanted to be a revolutionary and fight for something you believed in. The story was real to not only Black history but Black culture. Everything from the outstanding stage sets done by talented students from Franklin High School, to the dialogue and costumes rang true. It embodied blackness during the 60’s in a memorable way.
Although the majority of the play was set in a living room, there were creative ways to represent action that took place off stage. The lighting team did a very good job with shifting scene focus based off of where the light was shining, and shadowing out the characters that weren’t involved in the scene. I sat in the back row, and I heard everything perfectly clearly, not only was the delivery good, but the acting was amazing! Especially actress Lillian Afful- Straton, who played the role of “Marti”; her personality was like light that you just couldn’t help but to draw yourself to. Even her moments of tears were executed very well. The whole cast comes from different forms of artistic backgrounds; they delivered an amazing show, one that I highly recommend seeing! If you care about Black history in Seattle, if you care about the revolutionary movement or if you down right just love a good story with a twist to it, this is definitely the play to go see!
“Don’t Call it a Riot” plays at the 12th Ave Arts theater, in Seattle through June 23rd. For ticket information go to http://www.blackboxoperations.org/ or www.brownpapertickets.com
Written by: Alzeen Redd