Knockout punches for our times: ‘Fetch Clay,’ ‘The Recommendation’

A pair of plays have just opened that pose intriguing questions about what fate may have in store for each of us that changes the rules of thriving. And in a third audacious work, Anne Washburn’s fable “Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play” we’ll review next week, adds “surviving” to that equation.

‘Fetch Clay, Make Man’
Playwright Will Power captured the imagination of lucky theatergoers who saw his unforgettable one man diatribe “Flow” a decade ago. Since then, in addition to adding to his playwriting laurels, Power has spent much of his time pursuing his intrigue with the unique relationship that Cassius Clay formed with the black comic film actor Stepin Fetchit — whose stage name became the latter’s calling card — and led to his becoming the boxer’s guide during training for Clay’s fabled 1965 rematch with Sonny Liston.
The result of Power’s research and insight have become “Fetch Clay, Make Man” just opened at New York Theatre Workshop. There, it’s currently sharing the potently revealing, magnificently researched tale of how Clay enlisted the actor — based on the boxer’s idolatry of Fetchit’s prizefighting buddy Jack Johnson — to help him create a proper technique for a sure victory for the man who, after his first Liston fight had become a very vocal voice for the Black Muslim movement. Born Lincoln Perry, a shrewd thriving businessman, “Fetchit” had traded his dignity to carve a place for black actors in Hollywood. And, as strongly drawn by Power, appears to be the catalyst that enabled the future Mohammed Ali to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” in his knockout return bout with Liston.

K. Todd Freedman’s magnificent performance as the actor — which reaches its gut punch apex in the revealing monologue that left our audience stunned at the end of Act One — is a bitter diatribe on the cost of assuming the fumbling caricature Fetchit created to win the hearts of a white population who laughed at — not with — his bumbling roles. It is the emotional high point of “Fetch Clay” — but the two hours that surround it offer fascinating insights into the boxer’s framing of the persona he chose to present to the world as a revered spokesman for his race.
In a breakout performance young Ray Fisher’s Cassius Clay becomes the very essence of Mohammed Ali in gestation. Handsome, buff, fluidly athletic, darting and dancing and quipping to display an ego as puffed as training gloves — but also a sharp mind seemingly born wary and wise beyond his years — Fisher makes Clay a leader-in-training, and one both able to absorb life lessons and equally egotistic in his ability to cast off hired hands (such as Fetchit) who’ve served their purpose. Equally affecting, Tony winner Mikki M. James, whom we first meet in traditional Muslim attire—that’s shed by the play’s somewhat overextended conclusion — is a character we only begin to know as “Fetch Clay, Make Man” makes its transition (under Des McAnuff’s fluid direction) from history lesson to portent of the extraordinary impact of a national hero revered to this day
With the stage set by Riccard Hernandez as a stark white boxing ring surrounded by our audience on three sides as spectators, projections of historical moments defined in the play (designed by Peter Negrini) fill the rear wall, drawing us back in time while we remain transfixed by the emotional impact of a little known friendship that might have changed history. “Fetch Clay, Make Man” is a drama that with a tightened second act could go straight to Broadway. And Power is a knockout talent. (NY Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th St. 212-460-5475 or nytw.org)

Recommended: “The Recommendation’
Jonathan Carens’ “The Recommendation,” just extended at The Flea, is a searing reminder that wealth and privilege may seem a sure inroad to reaching goals unavailable to the less fortunate — but beware. While that lesson today has become increasingly noted for the abusive excesses that have turned sour for the rich and infamous — there’s still no doubt that wealth and the connections it brings — or buys — is a definite stepping stone — to the best schools, jobs and “the good life.”
This is what Aaron (Austin Trow), a privileged son, extends to his college roommate, Iskinder (James Fouhey), son of an African immigrant father and a white mother, who is supplementing his tuition by selling pot disguised in peanut butter jars. As the youths goes on to a top graduate school — with Aaron’s dad’s help — and come of age to join the work force, a disillusioned Iskinder finds himself in a top law firm defending white collar criminals. Aaron, never having had to grow up, tries to amuse himself in a cushy but lesser job in the entertainment industry. Until a chance driving incident lands him in prison — and a world where his privilege has no rank at all.
A raw Second Act is a shocker, introducing us to Dwight (Barron B. Bass) a burly repeat offender who “runs life” in the jail. In the end “it is who you know that matters”— but that’s for you to discover, mesmerized and reflective at The Flea. Thoughtfully conceived and brilliantly written. Tickets now at (212) 3352-3101 or theflea.org, 41 White Street, Tribeca. Get there!