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To crib from Samuel Beckett takes chops, and to crib from God takes real chutzpah! And that’s exactly what playwright Antoinette Nwandu demonstrates in the play “Pass Over,” running through August 10 at Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in Evanston. Marketed as a “provocative riff on ‘Waiting for Godot’ and ‘The Exodus,’” the play adds another feather to the cap of Tim Rhoze, artistic director of Fleetwood-Jourdain and director of the play, both for his clever staging and his landing of a work that has generated quite a buzz. The play drew mixed reviews from critics (mostly positive but for one controversial review in the Sun-Times) in its 2017 premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre and later debuted as a Spike Lee-directed film at Sundance. In 2021, it was the first play to open the post-pandemic Broadway season.
“Pass Over” is a slice of life of Chicago’s South Side, as two young men—the broad-shouldered and brooding Moses (Tyshaun Meekie), and lanky and jovial Kitch (Tyrone Norwood, Jr.)—idle away their time sitting beneath a street sign on the corner of 47th and King Drive, engaging in deep conversations—some funny, like a dialectic on whether mustard belongs in potato salad, and some morose, like when reflecting on the friends they’ve lost to police violence.
The hopelessness of their situation is rife with pathos. They claim that they can’t leave the block because they must protect their territory, but really, it’s because they’re scared to travel any further for fear that they’d be molested or killed. What little security they have is obliterated as a white police officer (Tiemen Godwaldt) moseys onto their block looking for any excuse to brandish his billy club. The officer beats them. Smacks their groins. Steals their food. Calls out racial slurs. The police officer in “Pass Over” is an archetype of the “crooked cop” functioning in a plausible scenario, and the scene is an attempt to communicate the feeling of helplessness and frustration experienced by many Black Americans rather than a cruel, hasty generalization of all police.
The “Godot” reference is writ large—two guys talking by the side of the road under a thin structure—but the biblical references are more nuanced. Enter a naïve, white, goody two-shoes (Godwaldt) on his way to bring dinner to his mother who has lost his way and haphazardly wanders into Moses’ and Kitch’s block. Smiling politely, he tempts them with food from his basket and compliments them profusely. You know who else is a polite a purveyor of temptation and has a silver tongue? Satan!
As they press him, more satanic elements—conspicuously like elements of white supremacy—reveal themselves, but the man is never explicitly named as the Adversary (however, a shocking twist ending will have you questioning your assumptions). The biblical references don’t stop there, as Moses begins having visions of a promised land; a peaceful place to which they can “pass over” and leave this world behind. He becomes imbued with an awesome might, a means to fight back against powerful foes. Is he the prophet of a new age?
Vicious and unnerving, “Pass Over” captures the spirit of the times. It’s not a happy picture but it is a salient one. The play is historic, and this is a chance to see it live for the first time in the Chicago area since its debut.
“Pass Over” runs through August 10 at Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Street, Evanston. Tickets are $32 ($10 students), available at fjtheatre.com.
