Witty, upbeat crusade to liberate hip-hop
Tuesday,
March 9, 2004
Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic
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Thieves in the Temple: Hip-hop theater. Written and performed by Aya de Leon. Directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang. (March 14 through 28. Oakland Box Theater, 1928 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 80 minutes. Tickets $3-$10. |
Remember the good old days, way back in the '80s when old-school hip-hop was a progressive, nonsexist, politically engaged and revolutionary new art form? Aya de Leon not only remembers -- with a passion. She's determined to retake the form from the forces she proclaims are "Thieves in the Temple." De Leon's high-caliber, high-energy and highly enjoyable show of that title is a mostly one-woman crusade toward, as her subtitle has it, "The Reclaiming of Hip Hop."
Or maybe she doesn't remember things as clearly as she claims. No sooner has "Thieves" opened with a clever biblical account of the birth of hip-hop in the Bronx, the rise of the evil gangsta forces in the West ("and the plague did spread across the land") and the coming of Aya ("descended from a line of warrior artists") -- beautifully interpreted in rap and break moves by dancer-choreographer Amara Tabor-Smith -- than de Leon confronts a different truth.
As de Leon proclaims her lifelong dedication to the form, Tabor-Smith appears as a vision of her teen self, challenging her adult self-righteous racial and sexual justice crusader image with the Berkeley High student who felt excluded by hip-hop and more comfortable among her white friends. A self- deprecating honesty, a funny wit and a captivating sense of rhyme and rhythm are as essential elements of the bracing, dynamic charm of de Leon's "Thieves" as her upbeat and uplifting message.
A new, full-length version of the solo show de Leon has performed to some acclaim at New York's Hip-Hop Theater Festival and elsewhere, "Thieves" opened Sunday in a one-night stand (presented by the national social justice group Speak Out) at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum. It reopens this Sunday for a two-week run at the much smaller Oakland Box Theater as part of its Making Herstory series.
As staged by veteran local director Ellen Sebastian Chang ("Your Place Is No Longer With Us," Whoopi Goldberg's "Moms"), "Thieves" maintains an easy, beguiling flow that serves to showcase de Leson's poetic skills, character sketches and bursts of magnetic hip-hop energy. Sebastian Chang uses sharply focused pools and squares of light to vary and enhance the visual impact on an almost bare stage.
A rising star of the hip-hop theater circuit, de Leon -- principally a performance poet until recently (and daughter of singer, human rights activist and former Berkeley school board member Anna de Leon) -- hasn't yet achieved the charismatic, shape-shifting prowess of a Danny Hoch or Sarah Jones. But she's on her way. Her characters are sharply drawn and generally well delineated. Her humor is fresh and cleverly devised to reinforce her hip-hop liberation perspective.
Her autobiographical segments are touching and engrossing, as she depicts herself growing up black and Puerto Rican in Berkeley, trying to get in touch with her black roots at Harvard and a rude awakening while swooning in wide- eyed enthusiasm at a Chuck D concert. She's sharply satiric in raps on "If Women Ran Hip Hop" and the commercial exploitation possibilities contained in the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.
Stopped mid-act by a pushy, autocratic promoter (a crisp portrait by Tabor-Smith), who hijacks the stage for a Brimmin' With Women International Women's Day festival ("Yeah, I love me some international women"), de Leon switches between portraying herself and some of the festival artists.
She's hilarious
and poignant as a tough rapper with a reverse Tourette's syndrome that
exposes his vulnerable, "Sesame
Street" side. She's stunning
-- after a rocky start -- as a defiantly self-marketing sex-toy
emcee who suffers a heartbreaking moment of truth onstage. She's
a wonderfully pointed, casual
underground DJ rapping a crisp critique.
That rap sets up de Leon's inspirational closer, "It's the Time for the
Reclaiming of Hip Hop" (to the tune of, of all things, the Zombies' "Time
of the Season"). Infused with her wit and engaging persona, de Leon's "Thieves" may
not return hip-hop to its early past, but it could help elevate the form for
the future.
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E-mail Robert Hurwitt at rhurwitt@sfchronicle.com.