Dignity of ‘Work!’

Once in America, “when it was believed there was a moral order in the universe,” where everyone appeared to “know his station,” black Americans were locked into four fundamental categories: the Clean It Up Man (Charles Lane), the Maid (Joyce Guy), the Cook (Fana Baba Dayo) and the Handyman (Joel Talbert).

Within these limits--according to “You Better Work! A Cultural Anthology of the Black Work Ethic,” at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee’s Tell-It Theater--African Americans strove and strained against the rigid social order.

But the work referred to is not only the sweaty, pride-breaking labor of the work ethic of the past, but the challenges of fighting racist and sexist stereotypes and expanding opportunities in the future.

Weaving in stories from their own personal histories, writers Guy, Lane and Bob Devin Jones confront various stereotypes with dignity and eloquence. Singing with strong, vibrant voices and dancing energetically, the cast performs with touching intelligence and minimal bitterness.

As director, Jones makes the 70-minute performance feel dense with detail. The words, Dayo’s choreography and the music composed and played by Derf Reklaw mesh seamlessly.

The piece was created as a companion to the discomfiting images and mind-numbingly monotonous clanging that fills “These Hands,” a 45-minute documentary by Florence M’mbugu Schelling about women in Tanzania crushing and sorting rocks for about $6 per week. Clearly, the work ethic exists in Africa as these women struggle along the lowest stratas of the global socioeconomic order.

The film and a question-and-answer session with the actors follow the performance.

BE THERE

“You Better Work! A Cultural Anthology of the Black Work Ethic,” Watts Labor Community Action Committee, Tell-It Theater, 10950 S. Central Ave. Saturdays, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 4 p.m. Ends Aug. 23. $10. (213) 563-5639. Running time: 2 hours.