Script by 
Michael Gene Sullivan

Music and Lyrics by
Ira Marlowe

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Featuring George Scott, Lisa Hori-Garcia,

Hugo Carbajal, and Michael Gene Sullivan

Directed by Andrea Snow

 

Nominated, 2015 Theatre Bay Area Awards:

                  Outstanding World Premiere Musical

                  Outstanding Direction of a Musical

                  Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Principal Role in a Musical

Winner!      Outstanding Ensemble

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“A door is blown off its hinges! Into a blasted room of scarred walls and shattered windows, armed with M-16's, America's brave men and women in blue duck and dodge for cover, finally training their deadly gunsights on... an old black man watching TV on his couch? This isn't Baghdad or Kandahar - its a home in America, and for ex-Black Panther Malcolm Haywood it's just another wrong door police raid in the War on Drugs. So of course Malcolm is horrified when the grandson he’s tried to protect, Nathaniel, returns from serving in Afghanistan only to find another war zone at home - and one where young Black men like Nathaniel are in the crosshairs! Meanwhile the Mayor and the Police Chief -  one desperate for votes, the other desperate to fund his militarized police force - ramp up the fear (and their shiny new tank) to fight the newest, drug threat to America.

A drug trade that is, of course, centered in the darkest part of town…

 

Are the police out of control? What happened to "innocent until proven guilty”? Is Malcolm's neighbor Lluis (an undocumented immigrant,) actually a drug-lord? And can Malcolm convince his grandson that it is safer to re-up and fight overseas than to try to survive here at home, in Freedomland?”

 

 

“Deft running gags and a powerful wallop of a reality check lurking under the satirical silliness… High-­energy and often hilarious while also serving as a sobering depiction of how entire segments of the population can be automatically seen as a threat because of the color of their skin in this supposedly “post­racial” society.”

Sam Hurwitt, Marin Independent 

 

“The humor is broad, the music is catchy, and by the end, the audience is on their feet to the tune of “There can be no law till there’s order / There can be no peace till there’s justice… “Freedomland” never gives up. This is a new play with top commedia standards.”

Barry David Horowitz, Theatrestorm

 

“Bravura performance.” “Brilliant.” “Freedomland stands out as one of the most thoughtful and sobering (of the Troupe’s productions.)  It is fraught with emotion and analysis. Call it, for want of a better phrase, a "musical tragedy," fueled with a polemicist's intensity, a Shakespearean reach, and a doo-wop dollop of tuneful songs. Freedomland rises to an important new level of radical criticism.”

Gar Smith, Berkeley Daily Planet

 

“The production should break under the weight of its content aspirations, but playwright Sullivan and director Snow keep the pathos on simmer until the end. The laughs, served in a steady flow, are justly earned and make it almost too easily bearable to consider the tragic situation on display.”

Robert Sokol, San Francisco Examiner

 

“While there is plenty of its famous, biting humor, there is also a serious undercurrent throughout this year's offering that is not just a picnic-in-the-park diversion. Freedomland is a rallying call for citizen oversight and action… Once again, the San Francisco Mime Troupe has produced an action-initiating play that deserves to be seen far and wide.”

Eddie Reynolds, Talkin’ Broadway