‘Dutchman’ Revival Echoes Rage of ‘60s

First produced 35 years ago, “Dutchman,” by LeRoi Jones (now Amiri Baraka), bristles with a righteous rage undiluted by the decades, at Theatre at the Improv. However, the one-act is too short to constitute a full theatrical bill.

To beef up the play here, various guest artists alternate as “opening acts” during the run. The evening this reviewer attended, poet and dancer Charlene “LuvJonez” Jones displayed laid-back aplomb performing three of her own spoken-word pieces.

Albeit brief, the main event has been beautifully rendered in every detail by director Bjorn Johnson and his exceptional cast. The action transpires on a Manhattan subway car during a sweltering summer evening in 1964. Clay (Steve White), a well-educated black man, sports a business suit, a briefcase and an impenetrable reserve--emblems not only of his upward mobility, but also of the inbred caution so necessary to his survival.

In stark contrast, the scantily clad Lula (April White), a white woman, glistens with sweat and unbridled eroticism. Highly neurotic, a creature of impulses and extremes, April uses her sexuality--the lure of the forbidden--to batter down Clay’s carefully maintained psychic barricades. In so doing, she unleashes Clay’s long-repressed fury and sets the stage for tragedy.

Burris Jackes’ set looks so authentic that it makes us claustrophobic. Kathi O’Donohue’s lights--glaring brightly, then flickering into sudden blackouts--ingeniously re-create the ambience of a New York subway, as does Peter Stenshoel’s subtly disorienting sound.

Now, if only Johnson would flesh out the evening with one more thematically linked one-act. . . .

*

* “Dutchman,” Theatre at the Improv, 8162 Melrose Ave. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends April 25. $20. (213) 208-3882. Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.