The Road to Lethe
Playwright Jeffrey Neuman's Latest Explores Race in This World and Perhaps the Next
Testimony by Philonese Floyd, George Floyd's brother, at a U.S. congressional hearing.
(I am quoting this in its entirety because I didn't have the heart to take anything out—JW.)
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"Thank you for the invitation to be here today to talk about my big brother, George. The world knows him as George, but I called him Perry. Yesterday, we laid him to rest. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m the big brother now. So it was my job to comfort our brothers and sisters, Perry’s kids, and everyone who loved him. And that’s a lot of people. I have to be the strong one now, because it’s what George would have done.
"And me being the big brother now is why I’m here today. To do what Perry always did for us – to take care of the family and others. I couldn’t take care of George the day he was killed, but maybe by speaking with you today, I can help make sure that his death isn’t in vain. To make sure that he is more than another face on a T-shirt. More than another name on a list that won’t stop growing.
"George always made sacrifices for his family. And he made sacrifices for complete strangers. He gave the little that he had to help others. He was our gentle giant. I was reminded of that when I watched the video of his murder. He was mild mannered; he didn’t fight back. He listened to the officers. He called them ‘sir.’ The men who took his life, who suffocated him for eight minutes and 46 seconds. He still called them ‘sir’ as he begged for his life.
"I can’t tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that. When you watch your big brother, who you’ve looked up to your whole life, die. Die begging for your mom.
"I’m tired. I’m tired of the pain I’m feeling now and I’m tired of the pain I feel every time another Black person is killed for no reason. I’m here today to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain. Stop us from being tired. George’s calls for help were ignored. Please listen to the call I’m making to you now, to the calls of our family, and to the calls ringing out in the streets across the world. People of all backgrounds, genders and race have come together to demand change. Honor them, honor George, and make the necessary changes that make law enforcement the solution – and not the problem. Hold them accountable when they do something wrong. Teach them what it means to treat people with empathy and respect. Teach them what necessary force is. Teach them that deadly force should be used rarely and only when life is at risk.
"George wasn’t hurting anyone that day. He didn’t deserve to die over twenty dollars. I am asking you, is that what a Black man’s life is worth? Twenty dollars? This is 2020. Enough is enough. The people marching in the streets are telling you enough is enough. Be the leaders that this country, this world, needs. Do the right thing.
"The people elected you to speak for them, to make positive change. George’s name means something. You have the opportunity here to make your names mean something, too.
"If his death ends up changing the world for the better. And I think it will. I think it has. Then he died as he lived. It is on you to make sure his death isn’t in vain. I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to Perry while he was here. I was robbed of that. But, I know he’s looking down on us now. Perry, look at what you did, big brother. You’re changing the world. Thank you for everything. For taking care of us when you were on Earth, and for taking care of all of us now. I hope you found mama and can rest in peace and power."
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Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Neuman
Local playwright Jeffrey Neuman's The Road to Lethe is having its world premiere at Benchmark Theatre on Friday and runs through 18th May. Neuman has had plays produced in theatres around the country, and won awards as well as dozens of positive reviews. But like all serious artists he's approaching the unveiling of his work on opening night with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. "I do hope that this play came from an interesting space," he says. "I don't know how it's going to turn out on stage, what it's going to look like, feel like."
The title caused me to expect something mythological and metaphorical, like Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses or Sarah Ruhl's Euridice and when Neuman says his inspiration arose from Philonese Floyd's statement in congress and dealt with race I was surprised. "I took a lot of risks," Jeffrey explains. "More than I'd done before. I don't know how it's all going to come together."
The Road to Lethe was shaped during the pandemic when the theatre world was mostly dark and, at much the same time, the Black Lives Matter movement was surging. Many artists had begun contemplating where their work could live and where it fit into the current landscape. In Denver, that work was changing and developing.
Neuman says he was wondering, "Who am I as an artist? What stories would I be telling? Should I be changing my story telling, which was mostly grounded in naturalism and relationships, both intimate and situational? That was a real reckoning for me as an artist and a human being.
"The Black Lives Matter movement made us think, made me wonder how good an ally I was and how I was perhaps unwittingly contributing to the cycles of oppression and systemic racism I was seeing around me. Perhaps I'm a lazy ally who thinks he's doing good because he's well-intentioned. I was picking at the scab.
"Something profound happened when I watched Philonese Floyd's address to Congress. He said something that really resonated with me: 'I'm tired of the pain I'm feeling now and the pain I feel every time another Black person is being killed. I'm here to ask you to stop the pain.'
"I wanted to write something that spoke to those words."
And then he adds, "Something kept whispering in my ear to open Edith Hamilton's Mythology." He paused at "The Judgement of Paris " in which Paris, a prince of Troy, is required to give a golden apple to one of three goddesses--the one he finds most beautiful. Goddesses then were as jealous and small-minded as many humans are today and infighting followed, eventually leading to the tragic slaughter of the Trojan War.
"How petty emotions could lead to the destruction of so much life felt like an amazing metaphor for racial animus in America today," Jeffrey observes. According to Benchmark's description of his play, "A Black handyman is hired by three aging white women after they receive a mysterious parcel from Amazon, a package to which they all lay claim. The play explores issues of systemic racism and white saviorism through a slightly distorted mirror of Greek mythology."
There is a fantastical element to the play, Jeffrey adds, and a bridge between this world and the next in the person of a mysterious character. The action is set in the three goddesses' living room. It's "the kind of place where someone always makes cookies and that is so ordinary that it feels extraordinary," says Jeffrey. Another reason the work is not "constrained with realism is because of theatre magic, the work of actors and directors, the way a designer can make you feel something is happening that isn't."
Jeffrey continues, "Power, Wisdom, or Love are offered to Paris in the myth, and those are the three things I've tried to give to people in my life and work. I try to empower them, give them resources for knowledge and self-knowledge, offer love.
"This is a play about race and allyship. There's toxic allyship. How we often believe and think we are being helpful when we don't realize we are self-serving or contributing to the system. It's not about apology or self-congratulation. It is about figuring out how to be a better citizen, ally and advocate. I'm hoping The Road to Lethe is a conversation starter and mirror for a lot of people. A funhouse mirror of our own damaged world."
Benchmark Theatre is at 1560 Teller Street, Lakewood. Info@benchmarktheatre.com
303-519-9059