Roger G. Smith's "A Huey P. Newton Story," is a one-man show of sound and fury.
The play, written, directed and performed by Smith, relates the life and thoughts of Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton from the perspective of a stuttering, chain-smoking, poetry-reading "theoritician."
A high-pitched, rapid-fire monologue and an undulating, often pounding musical score work together to reveal a man whose visions and changing moods eventually lead him to the precept: "We're just one."
Beginning with an explanation of Black Panther Party ideology, and its misrepresented relations with the American public, Smith jumps into the chronological events that defined Newton's life.
Newton lived his first ten years in Louisiana before his family relocated to Oakland, where he graduated as a "functional illiterate."
Details of Newton's ensuing participation in the Panther party go largely unexplored.
Smith attempts to reveal the Newton interested in poetry, Shakespeare, jazz and freedom.
Smith's scrutiny of Newton comes to divide Newton into two personalities, the fiery public revolutionary and the "normal human being" that no one understood. The Newton of this period is characterized as depressed, at times almost incoherent, but driven by the same ideals.
The post '60s Newton laments a world that loved the Huey P. Newton image but feared the individual.
"I am no saint," Newton's character says.
"You scare people Huey," a sound-bite repeatedly echoes.
After his release from prison in 1971, Newton's character encounters a people who idolized his leadership, yet they could not rally themselves to action without the public figure of Newton.
Hounded by the CIA, FBI and a non-active future, Newton finds himself committing slow "reactionary suicide."
Newton finds his lived his life in search of one thing, "he wants to be someone who was loved."
The multi-media performance highlighted several facets of the slain Panther leader.
By meshing sound bites and excellent stage presence, the performance was above all thought-provoking.
