Review: Changing the status quo in ‘Red Harlem’ at Company of Angels

From left: Ahkei Togun, Fana Minea Tesfagiorgis, Rama Orleans-Lindsay and Luis Kelly-Duarte in “Red Harlem” at Company of Angels (Photo by Rafael Cardenas)

It’s 1932, and in the midst of Hoover’s bid for reelection during the early years of the Great Depression, a member of Stalin’s Communist Party turns up in Harlem, New York, joins forces with the first Black candidate to run on a presidential ticket, and recruits a group of Black actors and performers to sail to the USSR to make a film written by Langston Hughes that will show the world how capitalism and racism have oppressed Black Americans. Sounds far-fetched, right? But it actually happened, mostly.

Those events, as revealed to playwright Kimba Henderson by an elderly audience member after one of her play performances, became the inspiration for “Red Harlem,” which turns the historical source material into an intriguing exploration of choice, freedom and the lengths people will go to escape their status quo.

From left: Claudio Parrone, Jr., Luis Kelly-Duarte, Rama Orleans-Lindsay and Ahkei Togun in “Red Harlem” at Company of Angels (Photo by Rafael Cardenas)

“I am bringing hope to Harlem,” says Misha (Claudio Parrone, Jr.), as he stands outside a juke joint called Smalls’ Paradise, putting up a poster for “Black & White,” the film he’s casting with James Ford (Micah Johnson), the vice-presidential candidate of the Communist Party of America. Enter Lenore (Rama Orleans-Lindsay), a true party believer hawking copies of the Daily Worker, and Shifty (Luis Kelly-Duarte), a Mississippi-born bootlegger carting in hooch to supply the club — both hustling to make a living, though on opposite sides of the social spectrum.

Soon Will (Ahkei Togun) and Selena (Fana Minea Tesfagiorgis), a couple of performers dressed in their evening best, sashay in; they are romantically involved and also share dreams of fame in the entertainment industry. These Harlemites are cast in the film, and as they sail to Europe, they encounter Black intellectual Ralph Bunche (Johnson) and his UCLA classmate David Geller (Christopher Cassarino), a Jewish American who has recently purchased a nightclub in Berlin.

From left: Micah Johnson and Christopher Cassarino in “Red Harlem” at Company of Angels (Photo by Rafael Cardenas)

When the ship docks in Germany, things begin to get interesting, as the quartet spends the evening at Wunderbar, David’s club in Nollendorfplatz, a LGBTQ hotspot in Berlin. Bartender Velma (Dylan Jones), dressed in top hat and tuxedo and sporting a wooden prosthetic leg, performs a hilarious rendition of “Mack the Knife.” She and Shifty (whom she keeps calling “Shitty”) have a vivacious and flirty banter, before she sees the group off to their final destination.

Once in the USSR, despite initially feeling treated like royalty and much freer than they had felt in the U.S., the Harlem contingent is brought back down to earth by Hugh Cooper (Dennis Gersten), an American civil engineer overseeing the construction of a major hydroelectric dam. As head of the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce, he casts a Jim Crow-sized shadow over the film project, reminding Selena, Will, Lenore and Shifty that America’s tentacles reach everywhere, even deep into Soviet Russia.

From left: Claudio Parrone and Dennis Gersten in “Red Harlem” at Company of Angels (Photo by Rafael Cardenas)

During much of the first act, the characters often feel like mouthpieces for differing ideologies, made more apparent when Henderson’s dialogue is weighed down by historical exposition. The “spotlight monologues” in which characters reveal their backstories also feel stilted and presentational, something director Bernadette Speakes might have staged a little more subtly.

But as the play goes on, Henderson complicates the narrative by bringing in forces beyond the characters’ control, pushing them into difficult decisions that showcase their complexity, vulnerability and humanity, in all its messy contradictions. When the writing drops the history lesson in favor of forcing the characters into uncomfortable places, the piece finds its stride, and ends with some profound moments of reckoning.

From left: Luis Kelly-Duarte and Dylan Jones in “Red Harlem” (Photo by Rafael Cardenas)

The ease with which cast members interact is a credit to Speakes’ direction, as are efficient transitions between scenes, especially when they involve disparate settings. During those scene changes, actors slip into Mylette Nora’s fantastic costumes that instantly transport us back to the 1930s. Justin Huen’s set is modular and flexible, though a bit basic, enhanced by Emmanuel J. Munda’s projections, which imbue the flat-panel design with color and ambience.

The cast is solid and charismatic overall, but Kelly-Duarte and Jones steal almost every scene they’re in. Kelly-Duarte hilariously delivers Shifty’s many one-liners and turns of phrase, while Jones gives Velma a spunk and edginess that keeps even Shifty’s streetwise bravado in check.

The hope that Misha promises at the outset may not have materialized in the way the characters had envisioned. But their journey across continents and through history ends up being transformational for each of them, as reflected in Will’s statement to Ford near the end of the play: “I want you to know that although it wasn’t how I hoped, my status quo has changed for the better.”

“Red Harlem” continues through March 15 at Company of Angels, 1350 San Pablo St., Boyle Heights, with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. For tickets and other information, visit CompanyofAngels.org or call the box office at 323-270-6325. Run time is 2 hours and 35 minutes, including intermission.