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Usher Nonsense Vol. 2, No. 27
THE CONTROVERSY OF VALLADOLID, By Jean-Claude Carrière, English Version by Richard
Nelson (Rodney's Wife) Directed by David Jones
With Gbenga Akinnagbe, GerryBamman, Herb Foster, William S. Huntley III, Jeremy Michael Kuszel, Ron
Moreno, Monica Salazar, Steven Skybell, Josef Sommer and Graham Winton.
Scenic Design by Klara Zieglerova, Costume Design by Ilona Somogyi, Lighting Design by Mark
McCullough,
At the Public Theatre
This production is only running through March 13 – but don’t worry about seeing it. It is a bland
treatment of an event that affected millions of people.
This is a trial set in a 16th century monastery where the Catholic Church will determine if the native
Americans that they are busy conquering, torturing and enslaving are, in fact humans with souls that need
saving.
The requisite parallels are painted between this court and the Bush Administration. One wants to spread
Christianity and one Democracy. But the writing is so dull that you just want to jump up and shout “It was
a bad idea then and it’s a bad idea now. Everyone go home.” Jean-Claude Carrière is a well known play
and screen writer, collaborating with Milos Forman and Jean-Luc Godard among others. The Controversy
Of Valladolid received its world premiere in 1999 at the Theatre de l'Atelier in Paris. Variety wrote that it
was “one of the most moving shows in Paris” that year. I can only assume that he was miserably under
served by Richard Nelson.
There is no plot to sweep us along. There are dueling narratives – one that recounts the horrors the
Spanish are visiting upon the Indians and one that extols the philosophy of the conqueror “We are here for
THEIR good.” Indians are even introduced into the court and frightened, insulted and ridiculed to see if
they have the ability to react. They do.
Were this piece written and performed with some intelligence, some clarity or precision, , we might care.
We should, because at its conclusion, the court announces that, while the Indians indeed have souls. But to
placate the powers who need cheap labor to support their economy, the Church offers ip the Africans who
are abundant, available and absent of souls altogether. An astonishing and horrifying revelation of a turning
point in our world. But this piece starts out by dulling us into indifference and manages to keep us there –
in spite of the story.
©2005 by Tulis McCall