Sarah Jones Debuts 1-Woman 'America, Who Hurt You?' Show in Brooklyn
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 21
Sarah Jones Debuts 1-Woman 'America, Who Hurt You?' Show in Brooklyn
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 21
Summary
At Brooklyn’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Sarah Jones’s new solo show uses her multiracial family as a stand-in for the United States, with Jones shifting among a crowd of characters.
The piece frames America as a troubled adolescent in therapy, prodded toward self-examination and empathy by an older-sibling version of Britain.
Directed by Eric Ting for National Black Theater and Theater for a New Audience, the production grew out of Jones’s podcast and was co-commissioned by Oxford University, where it debuted last spring.
The review praises Jones’s virtuoso character work but says the current-events-updated script still feels uneven, with therapy scenes that can seem forced and baggy.