'Raissoneur'

I am a proud play thief. I have a knack for finding abandoned scripts and if no one claims them, I will happily take them home. no shame. I love theatre and I don’t think the ingestion of plays should be limited to productions. playwriting is literary— we should be reading plays.

I found Monet Noelle Marshall’s Raissoneur in the theatre office at NCAT two years ago right after completing my degree. I was very excited. from what I know of Marshall’s work, it is immersive, experimental, and non-traditional in all the best ways. Raissoneur was no different.

the stage is empty when the play begins, and Robyn, the central figure of the play, immediately breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience as if they are old friends, leaving the stage to pass out biscuits. in this opening scene, Marshall is foreshadowing the audience’s role in the play and establishing the immersive nature of the piece.

almost immediately after Robyn tells us that the play is a one woman show, she is interrupted by Professor, who names Robyn as the play’s raissoneur. as Robyn protests Professor’s claim, her one woman show is overrun by the remaining characters: Mama, Diva, Sunshyne, Big Black Mamba Shakur X, and Kid.

in an accidental blackout during the first scene, Robyn disappears, and the rest of the characters split up to look for her around theatre. the characters are paired off to conduct the search for Robyn: Mama and Diva explore the dressing room, Sunshyne goes with Big Black to look for Robyn in the green room, and Professor stays with Kid on the stage

the pairing of these characters is important. in fact, it is the paring of these characters that finds Robyn.

Mama and Diva are used to show conflicting ideas of Black womanhood. these characters could be loosely identified as the mammy and the jezebel, but Marshall doesn’t adhere to these stereotypes and instead shows us how dynamic a Black matriarchal figure can be. typically, the Black matriarchal figure is portrayed as non-sexual and in perpetual servitude, but Marshall has transformed this figure by making her the object of Diva’s desires. the audience gets to see the Black matriarch as a sexual being, with her own wants and desires outside of nurturing her children. the pairing of Mama and Diva in the search for Robyn, allows Marshall to explore conflicting identities and provide commentary on the suppression of queerness in Black women. both women admire each other, coveting their perception of the other’s life: Mama wants Diva’s confidence and independence, and Diva wants Mama’s stability and assurance. their exchange in the dressing room brings them together, almost to a kiss, before they are interrupted by Kid, who has found Robyn.

Big Black Mamba Shakur X and Sunshyne are used to articulate differences in social ideologies. Big Black represents the anger, frustration, and Black nationalism that is often associated with being pro Black, while Sunshyne, a white woman, represents peace, sacrifice, and softness.

the racial differences between these characters made this part of the play very frustrating.

in scene three, Big Black (whose barbaric characterization requires him to tote a spear, dagger, and flashlight), cuts his hand as he attempts to put his dagger away. when he cuts his hand, Sunshyne springs to the rescue, removing her shirt to create a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. as Sunshyne and Big Black decompress from the excitement of his injury, Big Black says:

BIG BLACK. You’ve got some Black man’s blood on your hands. Bet its not the first time. (Marshall 19)

Sunshyne immediately responds with a monologue in AAVE/Ebonics, exhibiting a very different speech pattern than the one she previously used, going as far to actually call Big Black a ‘nigga.’ 

(a white girl saying nigga...)

she cusses at him and excuses her behavior by claiming to be from the South Side of Detroit. they kiss passionately, he slaps her,  and then he curls into a ball and begins to sob. Big Black tells Sunshyne his real name, and shortly after, they are interrupted by Kid, who has found Robyn.

the ending of scene three reminds me of the end of Slave Play. there is an interracial couple, a sexual exchange, violence, sobbing, and somehow, everything is okay in the end. though the racial differences between these characters make this scene troublesome for me, these characters are extremes, with characterizations that are meant to emphasize their differences. 

by now it is clear what Marshall is doing: the characters are paired off in a way that allows for the juxtaposition of thought processes.

but the name ‘Sunshyne’ to denote the only white character in the play is very odd to me. and I don’t think it is necessary for Sunshyne to be white to show an extreme difference between her and Big Black.

I often wonder when reading Black plays with white characters if it even makes sense to integrate the realm of the Black play, and what purpose the white character actually serves in the space. is it imperative for Sunshyne to be white? does her whiteness add anything? would this scene still be powerful and make sense if Sunshyne were a Black woman?

I think so.

Robyn is found sitting amongst the audience. by the time Kid finds Robyn, he has coaxed Professor into breaking almost all of the traditional theatrical rules. this is another example of opposing viewpoints coming together. despite Professor’s protests for Kid to adhere to traditional theatrical standards, Kid has not only broken the fourth wall to search for Robyn, but he has also challenged many other standard, conventional practices like bringing audience members on stage and turning fullback. Kid’s ability to play with and in theatre is reminiscent of Robyn’s informal introduction in the first scene, and emphasizes the theme of theatre being an experimental projection of the playwright— it can be anything you want it to be.

after Robyn is found, she returns to the stage and a projection begins, showing a short film of Robyn opening a medicine cabinet in a bathroom and taking ibuprofen. when she closes the medicine cabinet, we see all of the characters standing behind her as she looks in the mirror. these characters are all a part of her, and they had to come together for her to be found.

it was a one woman show after all.

Robyn was the play, and the play was the raissoneur.