The Essentialisn’t – 12 September 2025

Told in an art form akin to choreopoem, The Essentialisn’t is a piece that fearlessly demands that the audience sit with their discomfort and explore it in real time. The focus of the piece was on the performative aspects of being Black in America, and it alternated between a very graceful storytelling and an uncomfortable truth telling in ways that seemed uncomfortable for both Black and white audience members, albeit at different moments. The performance lulls us into certain types of thinking, and then purposely disrupts, makes us laugh and then demands that we think about what’s funny. It’s a powerful use of performance art that digs deeply into what performance is and isn’t, and the roles that society casts people in from birth. What happens when people decide not to play those roles? Can they survive?

There were many memorable moments in this performance, from the tank of water to the dress of hair to the stereotypes on the labels from the art exhibition the audience walked through on their way into the theater to the neon sign where phrases were slowly taken away from the initial statement, “Can you be Black and not perform”. One moment that really stuck with me was the expectation that Black girls must sing well. In this moment, the audience was asked to sing badly in public just to see what it feels like, after a brief demonstration of a Black woman singing badly in public. The thing that struck me about this moment is that it was one instance in which the performers were giving the audience a contradictory message— they all spent the entire rest of the show singing beautifully. It was a microcosm about how this piece of performance art critiquing a performance is, in fact, a performance— and a very high caliber one at that. It’s a lot to hold in your head, and it’s very intentional about providing the audience with moments for reflection as the discussion transitioned from topic to topic— taking space, then making space. Another good (yet drastically different) example of this was the sudden line about fried chicken wrap. This moment made us laugh, but then as it tumbled into repetition we found ourselves in our own heads challenging our initial impulse to laugh as we were laughing at a stereotype rooted in historical oppression when Black people were unable to access the same nutritional options as white people due to enslavement and poverty. What’s funny about that?

At times, this performance was laser focused on the actors, with minimal light and nothing to distract. In other moments, it was all about a bigger picture in which the actors were just shapes and forms, surrounded by water, hair, flowers, singers, memories… It was a powerful way to suggest that these actors were simultaneously individuals and representatives of an unfathomably large collective encompassing all of the Black people who ever lived and will live. I seldom see a more intentionally written and methodically enacted performance that somehow managed to feel organic and pseudo-improvised. The Essentialisn’t is a powerful journey worth seeing for its duality— most crucially the way that it holds discomfort and healing in the palm of its well crafted hand. Eisa Davis has created something astounding, useful, and vitally important.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Emily Owens PR.