Geffen Playhouse BLACK CYPRESS BAYOU-A Bloody Mess

BLACK CYPRESS BAYOU is set in Deep East Texas in August of 2020, during the COVID pandemic on the heels of the murder of George Floyd and the social unrest it unleashed. COVID neurosis plays a heavily sanitized hand in the play's plodding plot but prescient, social unrest not a lot. The underlying messages keep being buried under sisterly squabbles, a murder mystery and spiritual apparitions which doesn't pan out in a satisfying Jambalaya dish. There's too many piquant tastes in the mix to savor any one flavor for long. And, there's enough stentorian shouting on stage to make one's head roll. A white man's head minus the rest of the body is battered about between the mom, Vernita (a lively Kimberly Scott) and her two daughters, LadyBird (Brandee Evans, Starz's "P-Valley") and RaeMeka (Angela Lewis, F").  LadyBird is under the impression she and her mom were going to do some night fishing together. Vernita has other plans. Vernita insists Ladybird call her sister to come join them before she lets on what's hidden under the linen in the laundry basket. The gruesome reveal is the bloody head of a corpse. How it came to be beheaded is a mystery that turns into a stream of explanations and accusations. It appears everyone knows more than they're letting on.  No one's holding their cards closer to their chest than mom. What little comic relief there is in this historic depiction of whites persecuting blacks comes from the physical comedy of Vernita's salty, know it all attitude. We learn the dead head belongs to the wealthy, modern day overseer who keeps the local black community living in poverty. Turning to the police is not a consideration as the police only brutalize and terrorize their community. Racial injustice and suffering are central memes that resonate with mistrust and oppression. The play might have reached its head built on a body of racial hatred but it's circumvented with the arrival of a fourth black woman, Tasha (Amber Charade Robinson) makes claims that are shocking to the sisters but don't seem to be as incredulous to their mother. The new reveals projected a phantom trajectory that washed away any trenchant socio/political messaging. BLACK CYPRESS BAYOU has a lot of good ideas but they are bogged down by too much mumbo jumbo. Less would've been more and we're left instead with a bloody mess.