Black Pearl Sings!

Tonight was the next performance in the Triad Stage season pass tickets. Frank Higgins' play Black Pearl Sings! about Susannah, a woman who, with a grant from the Library of Congress, travels to prisons to record African-American folk songs for posterity's sake...and hopefully personal glory. Pearl, an inmate for the past 10 years, sings with a glorious voice and enamors Susannah. Pearl also is hoping to contact her missing daughter, a losing proposition within the prison walls. Susannah also is hoping to find that one old song that could be traced to Africa itself as it came across on a slave ship. Susannah and Pearl forge a relationship where each one has something the other wants: Pearl barters with Susannah to help find her daughter, Susannah barters with Pearl by using her government contacts to secure her release.

Pearl's release occurs, with the condition she stays under Susannah's care; a form of "slavery" in Pearl's eyes. The two go to New York to ply their trade and earn money; money to help fund the search for Pearl's daughter. When a reviewer likens the performance to the unveiling of King Kong to an uppercrust audience, you can palpably sense the discomfort. What are we doing this for? Do we sell our souls for acceptance? Do we fully barter what we have and offer up what the other TRULY wants? Do we offer up that nugget that we hold that the other is really looking for, or hold onto it for ourselves?

Frank Higgins' interview on our local NPR station's Triad Arts Up Close: http://wfdd.org/audio/tauc/tauc0126.mp3