"Detroit '67" at Aurora Theatre Company

Aurora Theatre Company photo by David Allen

For my first taste of the fall season in the bay area theater community, I caught a production of Aurora Theatre Company's first show of their 2018-2019 season, Detroit '67 by Dominique Morisseau. The first of a trilogy of plays by Morisseau about her hometown. This one is set in July of 1967.

The Play

The late 1960s saw a rash of urban incidents, many of which got classified as "race riots," though that term probably doesn't accurately reflect the actual conflicts going on. Yes, race was a big factor as dissatisfaction with decades of racism and segregation boiled over.

Detroit '67 takes place in a basement in the center of the black community in Detroit. With limited options for socializing, many illicit after-hours parties spring up in homes and basements. A bit of booze and a lot of Motown dance music transforms an ordinary basement into a kind of night club. This one is run by Chelle and Lank, in the house they inherited from their parents. Running the parties brings in a bit of extra money. Chelle finds security in this, but Lank has bigger aspirations.

While Chelle is content to hang a few extra Christmas lights to liven up the basement, Lank is looking to upgrade from their balky record player to a new 8-track tape player. And unbeknownst to Chelle, Lank is looking to buy a local bar and run it with his friend Sly. The other friend from the neighborhood, Bunny, pretty much just wants to dance and party as a relief from the drag of everyday life.

A bit of extra disturbance comes into their lives when Lank and Sly bring home a white girl they found beaten and dazed on the street. Caroline is a mystery, evasive about her past and even how she ended up in this situation. But Chelle immediately senses trouble, while Lank insists that they have an obligation to help her.

So here we have an internal conflict that in some ways mirrors the conflict going on outside in the street. As the mostly white, often corrupt, police force cracks down on both legitimate clubs and bars as well as the after-hours parties, the characters in the play find themselves torn between ideals and dreams and the harsh reality around them.

The one thing everybody can agree on is the Motown sound, and the music provides a delightful backdrop to the whole show.

Stylistically, the whole setup obviously owes a lot to August Wilson's cycle of plays about Pittsburgh through the 20th century. By focusing on a small group of people in a single spot at a key moment, we get a personal insight into the larger social tides.

The Production

The key to the production is making a believable version of 1967, which is made easier by setting the whole play in one room. The basement, the decorations, the furnishings, and especially the music and costumes really worked. Having lived through 1967, I found it pretty convincing. The costumes by Kitty Muntzel were particularly good, and the set designed by Richard Olmsted  were excellent. And it's hard to go wrong with a Motown soundtrack (and some riot effects) courtesy of sound designer Cliff Caruthers and associate Elton Bradman. All of that felt very familiar.

More jarring was some of the language, particularly hearing the police almost uniformly referred to as "pigs." It felt authentic, but definitely hit my adult sensibilities pretty hard.

The acting was really quite good. Particularly I felt the supporting characters, Bunny (Akilah A. Walker) and Sly (Myers Clark), felt really authentic, including when they were not the focus of attention. Both felt like real people, not like manufactured caricatures.

The lead actors, Halili Knox as Chelle and Rafael Jordan as Lank, managed a pretty good version of adult siblings with some differences. Knox in particular seemed to have a solid connection to the style and behavior of a woman of the sixties. She conveyed very keenly the desire not to lose ground, juxtaposed nicely with Jordan's upward ambitions.

And director Darryl V. Jones pulled the package together really well. By making the full package feel right, he enables Morisseau's words to sell the conflict of the story.

Bottom Line

This is a very good play, and extremely well done, both by the actors and critically by all the supporting artists who make the setting believable.

As luck would have it, the show has been extended all the way to October 7th, so there are still two full weeks of shows you can catch, and I would recommend that you do. This is kind of Aurora at its best, pulling together a solid cast and crew in a relatively simple but totally recognizable setting.