America, Who Hurt You?, a joint production of National Black Theatre and Theatre for a New Audience @ the Polonsky Shakespeare Center

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The Play: America, Who Hurt You?; a solo show in which the writer-performer Sarah Jones uses her award-winning talent for embodying characters of different races, genders and ages to figure out why the country has become so divided 

Written by: Sarah Jones        Directed by: Eric Ting

One good thing: Favorite characters from Jones’ previous works—including the feisty Jewish grandma Lorraine and the no-nonsense black street philosopher Rashid—show up but the most effective moments are when Jones sensitively portrays people who have been shortchanged by the American dream, among them an enslaved woman, an Irish immigrant at the turn of the last century and the gay son of a Japanese woman interned during WWII  

One not-so-great thing: Even with the finely-crafted impersonations, this is basically a TED Talk and unfortunately it doesn’t say much that hasn't already been said many times before 

 

 


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