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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1992)
March 4 , 1992...The Portland Observer.-Page 7 Portland Observer •* E N T E R T A IN M E N T Mississippi Masala 1 Mythmaker by Bill Barber Newcomer Sarita Choudhury and Acadamy Award winner Denzel Washington star in Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala, a hot, spicy romance presented by the Samuel Goldwyn Company Denzel W ashington is the kind of man every mother hopes her daughter will bring home some day. He gradu ated from Fordham, in Bronx, NY. He won the Academy Award for his Por trayal o f Trip in "Glory." W ashington played M alcolm X in the off-Broadway production o f "When the Chickens came Home to Roost." He will soon be seen in Spike Lee's "M alcolm X." In real life, he is already married to actress/singer Pauletta Pearson. They have four chil dren. In M ississippi Masala, he plays the role o f Demetrius, a confident, self- made man and ow ner of a carpet-clean ing company. He is a proud African- American man who has never lived in Africa. A chance traffic accident introduces him to Mina, (Sarita Choudhoury) a beautiful young woman whose family fled Uganda in 1972, under the rule of Idi Amin. The flashback scenes were shot on location in the lush countryside o f Uganda. Their family now lives in one of the dozens o f Indian-managed motels that populate the local highways. Mina is a spirited Indian woman who has never lived in India. D em etrius and M ina. D ifferent races, different cultures, mutual attrac tion. The least likely o f couples to connect. The title comes from an Indian word. In India a "Masala" is a group of hot and colorful spices, potent enough to set your mouth on fire. "Mississippi Masala" offers up the peppery mix of an African- American man and Indian woman whose lives collide, literally, on a small town street in Greenwood, Mississippi. They set a once sleepy Southern town aflame. As Demetrius and Mina begin their secret love affair, each is swept into the other's exotic world. They soon find themselves at the center o f controversy and scandal. Mina's parents Jay (Roshan Seth) and his wife Kinnu (Sharmila Tagore) are outraged by the relationship. Mina's parents have hoped that she would marry the nice Indian boy Harry (Ashok Lath) from their inner circle of local friends. Their is still a degree of bitterness to ward African-Americans harking back to the memories o f being exiled from their beloved Uganda. The cultural tra ditions and religious values also come into play. Demetrius isn’t doing much better. His carpet-cleaning partner, Tyrone (Charles Dutton - TV's "Roc") is con cerned about how the relationship will effect theirbusiness. 11 also causes some interesting interchanges with his father (excellent character-actor Joe Seneca), his brother (Tico W ells) and his former girlfriend and "local girl made good" Alicia (NatalieOliver). The Indiancom- munity is furious, his business suffers, the bank wants to repossess his carpet cleaning van and friends whisper that he has crossed the color line. However, Demetrius stands his ground in his be lief that a shade o f color is all that separates he and Mina. "Your skin," he explains to M ina's irate father, "is just a few shades lighter than mine." There is an uneasy frankness about “ Mississippi M asala.” What emerges is a poignant, em otional and sometimes humorous look at the human situation. A story of exiled hearts in which two communities share their dreams and frailties, then finally come to recognize the sameness in their differences. A Solo Performance by African-Ameri can Actor/Singer Jacqui Sutton Written and Directed by Judith Catterall Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center 5340 N. Interstate March 20-29, 1992 Fri/Sat 8 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. $10 General; $8 Students/Seniors Sunday Matinees only: S5 All Tickets Call 823-2000 for Reservations Jacqui Sutton to Star as Mythmaker at IFCC Beginning march 20 and running for two weekends, an exciting new the atre work called M y th m ak er will be premiering at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center. W ritten and directed by Judith Catterall, M y th m ak er will feature a tour de force solo performance by African American actor/singer Jacqui Sutton. M ythmaker is not the first time Catterall and Sutton have joined forces. Last season, Catterall wrote a m ono logue and com m issioned music for Sutton to open a piece called In n er L andscapes. Hailed as “ moving, dra matic and inventive theater.” In n er 7 / e u iv t * TAKE A "MAGIC CARPET RIDE!’’ "AN EROTIC, FUNNY ROMANCE! -D avid Arisen, NEWSWEEK DEL THA FUNKY H O M O S ^ E r " M IS T A D O B A y fr lw WC « THE M A A W I R C K < FRIDAY MAR. 13 s195° RESERVED CIVIC AUDITORIUM 1 "TWO THUM BS UP!" -SISKEL & EBERT AH DENZEL W A S H IN G T O N R O S H A N SETH SARITA CHOUDHURY A M S S IS S IP P I M asala mafflHMHBK M W OROSELAND SAMUEI GOIDWYN COMPANY w SCS FIUHS w " “ “ “S ODYSSEY/CINECOM INTERNATIONAL«, FILM FOUR IHTHHM10NAI. M ™ N o Ä f i « BLACK RIVER« DENZEL WASHINGTON ROSHAN SETH SARITA CHOUDHURY fuotogiafn ’ — rrvrr.u ’ M ukutwi zuroir onrvrDC ISOONIWOWAIA CfiAUI TABAPflPfVAI A ’w ou(^ MICHAEL NOZIK ARC MIRA HAIR S soueeotrmb * aru « * »• MIRA NAIR n UAAAliI OR 1RS «(»OS TARTS FRIDAY MARCH 6th 1510 NE MULTNOMAH 248-6938 V U BROADWAY METROPLEX ¡OOIRV] 24B-6960 F l O I W f I) BY I R M ' F 'lT F IlT M '.'fc M COALITION, G ID » OF BO FRODI C^OIAS 08730253 A FILM BY MIRA NAIR - The D irector o f "Salaam Bom bay1 JlBVl T illi KMHD FM89.1 8 NW 6TH Calypso Singer T h e M ig h ty C h a lk d u s t,” re nowned Calypso singer from Trinidad, will present a free lccturc/dcmonstra- tion a t P o rtlan d S tate U n iv ersity W ednesday, March 11, at 1:30 p.m. in room 338 Smith Center. He will discuss "R ituals and Rebellion,” and explore the role of the political in Caribbean society and Calypso as a form of social protest. A reception and a showing of * GETO BOYS’ \ SCARFACE "SMASHINGLY SENSUAL!" LLOYD CINEM AS f / ’n - a / < I//, v S y ,VVi’ W ITH -P e te r Travers, ROLLING STONE . (•'nfq AND THE LENCH MOB i A POWERFULLY AFFECTING FILM." __muin tmcin mentary delivered by an eccentric and multi-faceted personality portrayed by Sutton. Ms. Sutton, at ease with both m od em and classical theatre, dramatic and comic roles, is perhaps best known in Portland for her critically acclaimed w orkw ithTygre’s Heart Shakespearean Company. She has been lauded for her ability to present a “wholly believable” character capable of “sharp emotional turns” and full o f “comic by-play.” In M y th m a k e r, Catterall also utilizes Jacqui’s rich singing voice, developed through several years of performing with the vocal ensem ble Jazz Mouth in the Bay Area. Jazz Mouth was an in tense and fertile training ground for versatile voices, sending a half dozen o f its m e m b e rs on to jo in B o b b y M cFerrin’s vocal orchestra. One of six brothers and sisters, Jacqui was raised in Rochester, New York. At Syracuse University, she stud ied at chi lecture, computer sciences and Spanish literature. W hen not onstage in some capacity, she can be found at work on her novel about magic and loss called W h ere th e D ragon Decides. min iiim iiiiiii M illi Hiiiiii -M ik e Clark, USA TODAY & Jack Mathews, NEWSDAY r# j m ìthcm an L andscapes was recently chosen to be presented at the prestigious Northwest New Works Festival in Seattle. To develop Sutton’s character for M y th m ak er, Catterall drew inspira tion from an eclectic resource list which ranged from Joseph Cam pbell’s Power o f M yth to The Old Parm er’s Almanac, from the Tao Te Ching and Mayan prophecies to James G leick’s Chaos, from Big Bang Theory to Native Ameri can legends, Hindu rituals and African American oral histories. She studied the storytelling traditions of both East and W est, observing gestural vocabu laries as well as verbal styles, finding threads that connect diverse cultures across time and space: intricate im ag ery painted with sand on opposite sides of the globe by Buddhist monks and Navajo shamans; a rocking gesture appearing in traditional Russian Jew ish Passover rituals and in Lakota Sioux w elcom ing cerem onies; insightful clown figures like American hum orist Garrison Kc i 11or and the N igerian trick ster god Edshu. Out of all this diverse material, Catterall weaves a web o f witty stories and contemporary com r be I . ' " “ Chalkdust” at PSU Mas Fever, a locally produced video of the Trinidad Carnival, follows the pre sentation. The public welcome; adm is sion is free. Chalkdust (also known as Hollis Urban Liverpool) is a “Calypso King” whose performances have won many awards; and he is an academic lecturing all over the world. He is a recording artist, as well as an au thor of books and articles on Calypso and Carnival, the M ard i G ra s o f T rin id a d . A s a Calypsonian, C halkdust’s poetry deals with social, economic and political is sues. He packs a humorous punch into many of his songs, yet the message is obvious even through the laughter o f such ditties as “No Toilet in Tow n’ and the “Doc Have G oat M outh.” Chalkdust’s presentation at Port land State University is sponsored by PSU ’s Black Studies Department and The Homowa Foundation, with assis tance from The Oregon Council for the Humanities and Portland Public Schools. For more information contact Su san Addy at 288-3025 or Candice Goucher at 725-3472. *te Mayor ■ Frtd •~‘: \e*n TICKETS AUO AI HOUSE OF SOUND • STUDIO 14 • ONE STOP RECORDS Black Women’s Gathering Tenth Annual Celebration Volunteers are needed to help plan T he T enth A nnual C elebration of Portland’s Black W om ens’ Gathering scheduled for May 8-9,1992. The G athering is a time o f celebra tion for all African and African A m eri can W omen throughout Portland and surrounding areas. A gala time ol net working,entertainment,cultural enrich ment and sisterhood is being planned. African American W omen w ish ing to assist on one of the committees should contact Deborah Marshall 236- 9687 or Lucinda Tate 283-3477 (M SG.) ...All Jazz, All the Time. M U 5 IC M IL L E N N IU M The Full Spectrum of Jazz... ...7 Days a Week, 365 Days a Tear. 32ND & E BURNSIDE 2 3 1 -8 9 2 6 Mainstream, BeBop, blues, Fusion, New Age. 23RD & N W JOHNSON 2 4 0 -0 1 6 3 -r For Best Results Advertise Iir the Observer T ' .______________ ...If It’s Jazz, It’s On KMHD! ;