Blood at the Root

It’s a tragedy in itself that a topic such as racial tension in the United States continues to be such sprawling and abundant territory for theatre-makers. This, entangled in frighteningly recent clashes over gun control, economic immobility and urban overcrowding in America, has given the Penn State Graduate Acting Class a profound political stimulus for Blood at the Root.

New York-based playwright Dominique Morisseau developed the play in partnership with the company and director Steve Broadnax to magnify the focus on segregation in the schoolyard. Infusing hip hop dance, poetry, rap and music, this complex and discerning work uses real events in 2006 as its inspiration, telling of six black students arrested for the “attempted murder” of a white student at Cedar High School in Louisiana.

Led by powerful, mature performances from a six-strong ensemble, the company highlight the need for engagement in politics at grassroots level – and stress, quite urgently, that the solution is connected to economics as much as it is sociology. Students' desire to catapult themselves away from poverty, a topic for which the groundwork was laid down so perfectly in documentaries such as Hoop Dreams and Waiting for Superman, is what really ignites the show. In fact, this central theme could be explored even further.

Instead, the actors rely a little too much on the tropes of student musical theatre, banging on chairs and syncing hoodies to convey drama. Misplaced decisions aside, this is authentic, comprehensive and provocative theatre that plays host to a vital, meditative conversation.