Bad Kreyol – 14 November 2024

Though the title of Bad Kreyol refers to a language barrier, one of the greatest joys of this production was that it took place in Haiti in situations that much of the audience couldn’t imagine, and yet the culture barrier felt nonexistent. The characters were human and relatable, even in moments when they were very worried about problems that US citizens never face. Powerful and poignant, Dominique Morisseau brilliantly takes a story of a culture that is structured dramatically differently from our way of life, and makes it indistinguishable from our way of life. This play is exceptional in how it depicts systemic structures that feel normal in Haiti, like having companions who are paid to be there and acknowledging exploitation without shame as part of how one gets ahead in life, in ways that don’t feel unfair or odd to us except when described by the American character who takes the role of a colonizer. She sees a system of existence that is working for the people who are a part of it and wants to transform it into something that is familiar to her and resembles her moral high ground. Yet structures of exploitation and paying people to be your friends are prominent and pervasive in American culture as well, which begs the question: is it better to be open and acknowledge the way your society works or hide it away as unspeakable because it is deeply unpleasant to actually think about?

Each character was on their own journey of self discovery, but each journey was largely driven by another character. Gigi’s (Pascale Armand) journey of understanding the wrongness of benefitting from others’ suffering was heavily influenced by Simone (Kelly McCreary)’s deep convictions and desire to see everyone’s humanity. Simone was emboldened by Pita (Jude Tibeau), whose courageous commitment to being himself despite the risks helped Simone feel normal herself. For his part, Pita’s intense desire for liberation was part of who he was before Simone, and, in a way, it was Gigi’s strong, self-described “rigidly”, that pushed Pita to differentiate himself from it. At the same time each character was lost in the cultural context of Haiti. Simone was raised on foreign soil, Pita was queer in a place where that was unacceptable, and Gigi was so focused on upper class international markets that she was out of touch with the suffering of other Haitians like Lovelie (Fedna Jacket). All of them were privileged in a sense, and not in another. And that’s where this show of emotional earthquakes really starts to shake things up. As an audience, we start to feel that we know the difference between right and wrong, but not which characters fit into which category. There is nothing in the show that resonated more deeply than the resoundingly flawed nature of humanity, which defies origins, educations, occupations, aspirations, perspectives, and cultures.

Even though the most likely resolution of the play always seemed to be a reconciliation between the cousins (Simone and Gigi), Dominque Morisseau maintained this as a question and not a surety up until the final moment of the show. Pascale Armand in particular did an excellent job keeping the tension alive, in a stunning end of show role reversal in which Armand’s character (Gigi) freely expresses feelings in a way that embodies the western liberation that Simone spends the whole show touting, while Simone embodies the silent, unmovable rock who does not outright speak of the negative feelings inside her. She merely gives herself over to tradition, and tacitly trusts that making pate with her cousin might bridge the gap between their lifestyles. Gigi has already begun to change, questioning the exploitation that she is complicit in; now Simone has an opportunity to connect with familial tradition in the world she has been so focused on changing. Everybody gives, everybody gets, and the set (Jason Sherwood) rotates between circumstances and the lighting (Alan C. Edwards) guides the audience to understand what can and cannot change. But as an audience member, the question I was left to grapple with was: who is qualified to decide if change is needed? Does bridging the gaps between cultural understandings necessitate one learning from the other, or is mutual understanding without the need to emulate more equitable? The ultimate challenge of being a visitor is to respect what is foreign to you as valid, even when it doesn’t resemble your expectations or ideals.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Blake Zidell & Associates.