THEATER REVIEW : ‘Third Kingdom’ a Potent Look at Slave Odyssey

When slave traders brought Africans to America, they created a “Third Kingdom” of souls who are adrift between the two worlds. This is the image conjured up by the magical writing of Suzan-Lori Parks in her “Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom.”

It’s also an image that has been transformed into theatrical gold in Peter Brosius’ staging of Parks’ dense but mesmerizing script, at the Odyssey Theatre.

A shallow pool of water covers most of Neil Patel’s set. In its center is a platform shaped like a raft, where much of the action takes place. The African-Americans who inhabit this perch have to splash through murky waters (the Atlantic Ocean?) to get there. Once there, they must watch their step--or else they’ll fall off.

Sometimes even the walls shimmer with slides of the watery passage between two worlds. At other times, Richard Hale’s evocative images of the people in the play are projected on those walls. The walls are studded with fields of small bones, which pick up on the image of bleached bones that recurs during Parks’ account of the slave trade.

The script is in four parts. The first, “Snails,” focuses on three contemporary women friends. One of them is distressed over her failure to pass some sort of test because she can’t speak “proper” English, another speaks of a silent robber who makes methodical house calls, and the third--a fan of TV’s “Wild Kingdom”--is shocked to see that Marlin Perkins carries a gun. The women are examined as specimens by a neurotic white naturalist who sends a huge, mechanical cockroach (prop design: Gillian Kadish) into their kitchen, then poses as the exterminator. The style is surreal, but the cast makes a kind of sense out of it.

In part two, “Third Kingdom,” the same actors wander through the water, reciting a threnody about the slave passage. Another version of this scene, with a twist at the end, is repeated between parts three and four.

Part three, “Open House,” is more explicitly a dreamscape, as a cot drops from above and we enter the nightmares of an aging slave, Mrs. Saxon, who has taken care of her master’s ungrateful kids (here in white face). Her teeth are extracted by a white-robed “Miss Faith” as she moves toward her final reward, but she does get the last laugh, more or less. Footnotes accompany this section in the script, and it would be helpful if the footnotes were printed as a program insert; some of the arcane historical references are probably lost on most of the audience.

Finally, in “Greeks,” an African-American Marine sergeant and his wife and kids are separated by his duty on a distant island--again, the ocean cleaves a culture in two. When they’re finally reunited, unhappy surprises await everyone.

Parks’ lyrical cadences are delivered with passion and precision by the five-member ensemble (Shelley Robertson, Sarah Davis, Ryan Cutrona, Fay Hauser and Robert Jason Jackson), all of whom play many roles. The cool blue hues and stark shadows of Doc Ballard’s lighting, Suzanne Jackson’s fanciful costumes and Karl Lundeberg’s haunting music and sound design are essential components of this compelling reflection on the effects of that gruesome transatlantic abduction.

*”Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends July 25. $17.50-$21.50. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.