No Child...

I have this bad habit of getting excited for shows and then being really let down (i.e. Shining City, Three Days of Rain, Rabbit Hole...I could go on and on). Lately, I've tried to set my expectations a bit lower in the hopes that they will get met. With No Child, my expectations were met and surpassed to the highest degree. I have not been this pleasantly surprised by a show in as long as I can remember. I also ended up giving the show a standing ovation - which I hardly ever do, except for some of my all time favorites.

Well the show is performed solely by Nilaja Sun - who plays about 10 different characters. I'm sure you can guess that by it being called "no child" the show probably has something to do with the "no child left behind" program. Yup, you're right. The show is centered around Ms Sun's experience teaching at Malcolm X high school in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the Bronx. The school is given a grant by the city to hold a special summer theatre program, and Ms Sun is brought on to teach this. She's an in-and-out of work actress who takes on this teaching role to pay her rent - but didn't really imagine what she was getting herself into. So the show begins with Ms Sun acting as the narrator - the school custodian. We then get to meet the entire class as she acts out scenes as about 10 different students - amazing! This woman can turn on a dime from playing a tough African American young boy to a scared Hispanic girl - it was really incredible, her technique. So she takes us through the ups and downs of teaching these kids. They study an older play about Australian inmates and try to find parallels with their lives. In addition to studying the play, each of the kids takes a part and plays it in the class production put on at the end of the program. Near the end of the story, we learn that the janitor dies and the play is dedicated to him, the lead of the play's brother gets shot days before the play is to be performed, and lastly that one of the girls is pregnant. But with all these sort of cliche moments, Ms Sun really brings to life her characters and the story - it was really remarkable and highly recommended.