Theatre

Theatre

"Five On The Black Hand Side"

Northwest Activities Center

Promising to deliver the most exciting and refreshing entertainment season this year in Detroit," the Festival Theater at the Northwest Activities Center opened its premier season last Friday evening with Five On The Black Hand Side, a light but entertaining three-act play by Charlie L. Russell.

Sharply paced by the directing of Ronnie Washington and featuring a well-balanced cast from the U of M, Five is the story of a black family living in present day Harlem which nicely blends historiecand contemporary concerns of black people in America and, through comedy, makes a positive statement about family strengths and survival techniques.

The Brooks family is about to come apart at the seams. Mrs. Brooks and her three children are at odds with the old-fashioned ideas and practices of Mr. Brooks. The family can barely stand to live with the man and one by one they start to pull away from the home.

Mr. Brooks, portrayed in a noisy manner by Cedric Ward, is straight out of days gone by. Calling his wife "Mrs. Brooks" and supervising her every move, he is a tyrant in the household as well as in the community, where he refuses to allow women into his barber shop and will not cut the hair of customers wearing "Afros."

The family and the community diagnose Brooks' problem as a severe but curable case of male chauvinism, complicated by a fit of Uncle Tomism. They decide boycotting and pickets are necessary: no housework gets done and customers are not allowed in the barber shop until the old man develops some respect for women and blackness.

Funny family entertainment with a serious message, Five On The Blackhand Side will be seen again in April, with a cast from the WSU Drama Dept., at the Bonstelle Theatre.

--Kenneth Dossar