‘Flyin’ West’ Views Black Pioneers’ Plight

Long before Malcolm X proposed separatism as the only possible means for African Americans to live in a society that would recognize their inherent dignity as human beings, African Americans joined post-Civil War mass migrations west to do just that. Pearl Cleage attempts to examine the plight of African American pioneer women protecting their all-black Kansas township in her “Flyin’ West,” currently at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.

As commendable as Cleage’s intentions may be, her play is marred by clashing tones--the sunny sitcom banter is obscured by the themes of domestic violence, murderous intents and inter-ethnic racism fueled by self-hate.

After an 1892 lynching and riot in Memphis, Tenn., African American journalist Ida B. Wells told her readers to “go west,” and more than 7,000 packed their belongings and heeded her advice. Large groups of African American homesteaders had already left the South after the Civil War, taking advantage of the free land offered through the Homestead Act of 1860.

Sisters Sophie (the gruff Cherene Snow), Fannie (Synthia Hardy) and Minnie (Margaret Kemp) fled Memphis in the post-lynching exodus. In Nicodemus, Kan., they met Leah (Amentha Dymally as an irascible, pipe-smoking former slave), one of the old-timers there, who’s now wintering in Sophie and Fannie’s house. Meanwhile, Minnie has gone abroad and today is returning from London with her snobbish, light-skinned husband Frank (Lance Nichols), a writer of bad poetry with grand literary aspirations and a racist who wishes his wife “was just a shade lighter.” Through various plot machinations Frank becomes involved with white land speculators who now threaten to break up this all-black township.

Director Shashin Desai doesn’t draw out multidimensional performances from anyone in this cast, and this increases the contradictory tonality endemic to Cleage’s script. The scenes with just the women have that made-for-serial-TV feel--a bit slow and filled with easy insults with attitude. The romance between Fannie and Wil (Cliff Gober Jr.) is also wrapped with a golly-gee innocence. While Kemp’s Minnie is bright and bouncy and convincingly anxious in her attempts to rationalize her husband’s brutality, this feminist-issue thread is out of place beside a mostly softened view of turn-of-the-century farm life.

* “Flyin’ West,” International City Theatre, Long Beach City College, Clark Street and Harvey Way, Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Feb. 23. $18-$20. (310) 938-4128. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.