FREIGHT


Audiences are flocking to the Fountain Theatre and with good reason. J. Alphonse Nicholson’s tour-de-force star turn as a man with five lives in Howard L. Craft’s off-Broadway-to-L.A. hit Freight is the stuff awards are made for.

Craft’s play reveals its intentions in his complete title, Freight: The Five Incarnations Of Abel Green: to present five different versions of the same black man as shaped by the America into which he was born.

Southern slaves had only recently been emancipated when the first incarnation of Abel came into this world, and by the time we make his acquaintance in 1910, “The Minstrel” has achieved a certain prominence in a field dominated by white men performing in blackface.

Still, even Abel’s relative success as an entertainer can’t erase the harsh realities of life in the Deep South where the threat of lynching is never far from a black man’s mind.

Flash forward to the mid-1930s, and Abel’s second incarnation, this time as “The Instrument Of God,” a faith healer whose “miracles” may not be nearly as miraculous as they appear to the easily duped revival circuit attendees.

The late 1960s see our Everyman recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the Black Panthers and report back to J. Edgar, though it doesn’t take long for Abel find himself siding more with the Panthers than with those bent on their eradication.

Blaxploitation flicks made Abel 4.0 the logical successor to Richard Roundtree or Jim Brown in the 1970s, but by the time we meet “The Next Great Black Actor” in the late-‘80s, he’s reduced to selling muscle-building supplements for Alonzo’s Hard Bodies while a closeted actor friend battles AIDS.

And by the time the 2000s roll around, Abel Green has gone from financial prosperity as a pre-crash mortgage broker to a life on the streets surrounded by crazies like self-proclaimed visitor-from-Saturn Wilma, and Abel himself just might turn out to be “The Saturn-Bound Man.”

Peopling Abel’s life in each of its five incarnations are supporting players like William Benson, who goes from minstrel show promoter to evangelical church founder to F.B.I. agent to closeted actor to homeless person, and Alonzo Price, whose various roles in Abel’s life include minstrel show advance man, preacher, drug dealer, food supplement shop owner, and a victim of Abel’s mortgage loan swindling.

It’s a heady concept, thrillingly executed by charismatic leading man Nicholson, ace director Joseph Megel, and a primarily L.A. based design team, who bring Craft’s personalized Black History lesson to stunning, conversation-provoking life on the Fountain Theatre stage.

Freight is also that rarity among solo performance showcases, an honest-to-goodness play (as opposed to an extended standup routine or autobiographical confession) featuring a couple dozen characters (five of them named Abel Green) brought to life by a single extraordinary actor whose work here is as mesmerizing as it is indefatigable and letter-perfect.

Joel Daavid’s ingenious set morphs from box car to sleeping car to subway car as the decades fly by, a design that allows East Coast-based video designer Eamonn Farrell to dazzle us non-stop for ninety minutes with one vibrant scene-setting visual after another.

Add to this Alison Brummer’s electrifying lighting design, Danyele Thomas’s character-defining Abel garb (with actress Sidney Edwards ably assisting in costume changes as “The Universal Flow”), Rebecca Carr’s reality-enhancing props, and sound designer Marc Antonio Pritchett’s standout mix of ambient effects and era-nostalgic music, and you’ve got another world-class Fountain Theatre production design.

Freight’s West Coast Premiere is produced by Stephen Sachs, Simon Levy, and James Bennett. Nicholson is executive producer. Graphic design is by Loyd Visuals. Kaitlyn Cramer is production stage manager. Scott Tuomey is technical director.

With J. Alphonse Nicholson now more than halfway through Freight’s limited one-month run at the Fountain, haste is of the essence to catch The Five Incarnations Of Abel Green before it leaves L.A. for good. I guarantee you’ll be grateful you did.

The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles.
www.FountainTheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
November 27, 2023
Photos: Jonathan Benavente

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