Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Curtain Call: Twilight Los Angeles 1992


Twilight Los Angeles, 1992 10/10


"Nearly thirty years after the Los Angeles uprising following the Rodney King verdict, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 returns home to the Mark Taper Forum to be reimagined with an ensemble cast for a new generation of audiences. A powerful piece of living record and one of the most important works in the history of the Taper, Twilight is a stunning and seminal play that explores the devastating human impact of the five days of uprising following the Rodney King verdict. From nine months of over 300 interviews conducted during the year following the uprising, playwright and scholar Anna Deavere Smith crafted a play that goes directly to the heart of the issues of race and class."


Last month Cam and I went to go see the play Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 it's crazy to think that it's been so many damn decades since the riots happened. Some people call him the uprising and all kind of the different names but as a resident of Los Angeles who lived through the riots I shall continue to call it the LA Riots. The original version of this play was performed by one person and I actually watched some of that and I will not try to say her last name because I will butcher it. It was weird watching one lady perform all these different roles but she was really good at it. This time they have five different actors playing all of these different parts and this damn performance was an emotional roller coaster. There would be moments where you were actually laughing and then the next thing you know you're seeing the actual Rodney King beating and then you see assaults from the LA riots and then it would go back to life performance. It was done really well. I would definitely see this again but I don't think this is a type of performance that is meant to be a yearly thing that's brought back.



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