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In the black community, racism accelerates the destructive effects of drug abuse. Cast of 3 women and 4 men.
A propos de l'auteur
George Elroy Boyd (1952-2020) was a pioneering Black Canadian playwright, journalist, and broadcaster. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he became Canada's first Black national television news anchor in 1992 as a co-host of CBC Morning Newsworld. Boyd's debut play,
Shine Boy (1988), marked a significant milestone as he became the first African Nova Scotian to have a play professionally produced on the main stage of Halifax's Neptune Theatre. His acclaimed play
Consecrated Ground (2000), which tells the story of the residents of Halifax's Africville, was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award for Drama. Other notable works include
Gideon's Blues, adapted into the film
The Gospel According to the Blues (2010),
Wade in the Water (2005), and
Le Code Noir (2009), which explores the life of 18th-century composer Joseph Bologne, known as the "Black Mozart".
Résumé
The apple of Momma Lou’s eye, Gideon embodies his parents’ hope for a brighter future for their family. College educated with the tireless support and sacrifice of his parents, he was to be the one to break free of the ghetto, to enjoy an integrated family life with his newfound peers in a middle management, middle-class suburban community of comfortably conspicuous consumption. Yet because of racism and prejudice, he has yet to find a job better than a janitor to support his wife and two children. An endless string of interviews for more suitable employment, turned instantly humiliating and patronizing by his appearance as a black man, stokes a slow fire of anger, resentment and disillusionment into a quiet and determined fury and a thirst for any kind of success, at any cost.
Turning to the easy drug money of the underground, Gideon is transformed from a victim into a victimizer. Slowly and inexorably, the circles of destruction around him widen in the community and echo back to devastate his own extended family. With the sophisticated and compelling portrayal of its complex characters, Gideon’s Blues offers entrance into the emotional dynamics of all families and cultures throughout history, by dealing with the powerful imperatives of love, fealty, devotion and justice. Much more than a play about the effects of racism, the profound humanity of Boyd’s characters reminds us that while neither drug abuse nor the breakdown of the traditional family is exclusive to the black community, racism causes these problems to become much more destructive to that community than they are to the dominant culture of North America.
Cast of three women and four men.
