Must Have Missed A Memo by Jonathan Coombs

                There is no need for a clever introduction on this one. That, and I can’t think of one. Anyway, The Colored Museum is showing in Boston this week, and sets out with the ambition to talk about social issues surrounding racism and prejudice. I only wish that it wasn’t as confusing as Shakespeare. I will discuss that now.

                Prior to arriving at the theatre, I was told that the Colored Museum is a satire and will make me uncomfortable when I laugh. I heard this and thought “Sign me up!” I enjoy being made uncomfortable, as it is a great way to know my own faults and step outside my comfort zone. So I prepared for 90 minutes of serious and insulting humor. However, the only thing I felt was insulted was my intelligence. The play opens with its best scene of a stewardess on a plane. Relating the plane to a slave ship, she instructs the audience on how to properly attach their shackles and tells everyone not to rebel. It shines through the fact that the crowd feels slightly responsible for what had happened. However, the play goes down in quality very quickly. All the acts after it don’t make me feel guilty or make me think about anything. All it made me think of is how the play could have been improved.

                Another thing. Maybe I missed a memo or something that is causing me to not feel much for the production. If there is something I missed, some hidden joke or a point of reading between the lines, then forgive me. But to me the production would have been impressive if it was written, acted, and directed by college students. That is the sort of quality that came out of it, some bad lines, some over and under acting, and a bad overall direction. If the play wanted to make a statement it never got there. And for some reason the people I’ve talked to don’t say this. They kind of stammer around it saying it was funny here or serious there. Is it because people are afraid they will be marked as racist if they don’t believe it was very good? Is that it? Cause its annoying that I seem to be the only one that doesn’t believe its slightly ok. It’s just not very good. I wish they did something to make their message clearer. If I knew what the message was then I could state how well they worked to communicate it. But I left the theatre without knowing what the message is or even the purpose of the play.

                I may be over exaggerating the bad points. Yes it didn’t have a very clear message to me, but refer to the title. I may have missed something along the line, and I don’t have much experience with the subject matter. The play is funny here and there, and there are some well written lines. So, I say go see it if you have nothing to do, or like the feeling of being confused, or have an experience with the subject manner. That’s where I stand.

                Rating: 7 chocolates out of 10 chocolates, while some people think it’s enough others want more.