THE AMERICA PLAY Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks places Abraham Lincoln, a recurring figure in her plays, at the center of a surrealistic re-examination of American history that is at once whimsical, absurd and poetic. The Foundling Father (Harold Surratt) is a gravedigger who so resembles Lincoln that he becomes obsessed with him and leaves his family behind to become a vaudeville-style Lincoln impersonator who pretends to get shot night after night. In the second act, after his death, his wife, Lucy (J. Nicole Brooks), and son, Brazil (Darius Truly), find themselves in a great hole (a replica of the Great Hole of History), digging for artifacts from the patriarch’s life and simultaneously exhuming the ghosts of America’s racial and political history. Nancy Keystone’s direction does a good job of physicalizing the jazzlike rhythms of the piece’s language, and her scenic design embodies the metaphor of a space that is nowhere and everywhere using a black, dirtlike substance to blanket the stage and bury many of the Foundling Father’s artifacts. Truly gives an energetic performance, while Brooks and Surratt are competent in their roles. While engaging, the play may be frustrating for some as the story leaves the audience with more questions than answers. THE THEATRE @ BOSTON COURT, 70 N. Mentor Ave, Pasadena; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Nov. 19. (626) 683-... More >>>