Two L.A. Plays About Creative People Who Won't Compromise Their Ideals

Clay is on the brink of converting to the Nation of Islam, thanks to Malcolm's influence. Brown, bruised from his professional calling as well as from his life growing up black in the South, wishes to remain apolitical, which means he also wants to have sex with white woman and eat pork, two no-no's in the Nation of Islam. Meanwhile, Cooke believes that getting royalties and supporting other black artists with those funds is political enough for him. Malcolm ridicules Cooke's songs as superficial.

Carl Cofield's energetic and captivating production derives from the charisma of the performers and the quality of the clashing ideas they express.

In one scene, Malcolm opens a Bob Dylan album and sets it on a turntable, to goad Cooke.

PHOTO BY ED KRIEGER

Claudio Pinto, left, and Paul Fontana in Resurrection of the Ants

Location Info

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Hayworth Theatre

2511 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Category: Performing Arts Venues

Region: Westlake

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Rogue Machine Theatre

5041 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019

Category: Performing Arts Venues

Region: Mid-Wilshire/ Hancock Park

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More About

• People George
• Paul Fontana
• Sam Cooke
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Theater

We hear "Blowing in the Wind." "How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man?"

Don't you understand, says Malcolm, this white boy from the Midwest has captured the struggle of black men through the decades in one line. What have you done? What are you doing?

The historical impersonations by these actors are as delightful as the wit in Powers' writing.

Fontana and Powers are realists — both in their worldviews and in the style of their plays. They approach their idealist-protagonists' agony with a certain bemusement, hoisting their plays into the sky. When their plays are airborne — in Powers' play, that's a constant; Fontana's tumbles at times — they strategically arouse the audience's skepticism, imposing on those characters a certain naivete, while at the same time leaving a tinge of optimism in the crowd that perhaps some beautiful and pure idea can actually withstand the corroding forces of the real world. There's hope when playwrights, in their new works, believe that such concerns still matter.

RESURRECTION OF THE ANTS | By Paul Fontana | Presented by Autumn Jump Productions at the Hayworth Theatre, 2509 Wilshire Blvd., Westlake | Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through July 28 | (323) 960-4443 | plays411.com/ants

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI | By Kemp Powers | Presented by Rogue Machine, 5041 W. Pico Blvd. | Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through July 28 | (855) 585-5185 | roguemachinetheatre.com