Review: Laughter is the real killer in ‘Miz Martha Washington’ at Mixed Blood

Sometimes laughter is the most lethal of weapons.

That’s a lesson that one of the Founding Mothers learns at the latest of hours.

Rising from her deathbed, Martha Washington commands Ann, one of more than 160 people enslaved at Mount Vernon, to do something. But instead of nodding, “Yes, Ma’am,” and hopping to it as expected, Ann and others listening outside the bedroom pause for a moment.

Then they howl in uproarious amusement, a choral cackling that cut Washington to the quick. The first lady is at a loss for why she’s the butt of such humor, but we are not. Her impending death inspires joy for those in bondage under her because their freedom is tied to her expiration.

“The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington” is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames’ first show to be produced in the Twin Cities. The bold, incisive one-act comedy is up in Pirronne Yousefzadeh’s wittily lacerating production at Mixed Blood Theatre.

It’s a riotous hoot that sends up history with game show antics, a trial and rap references from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion to Snoop Dog, Soulja Boy and Dr. Dre. The play has gleeful fun with some of the nation’s hallowed symbols in a mishmash of styles and influences.

If it is sometimes uncomfortable for some audience members not sure how loudly they should laugh, it’s because “Miz Martha” implicates the contradictions embedded in the DNA of a nation founded in freedom. The play shines a different type of light on historical figures we often see in gauze.

Washington, as imbued with innocence and genuine befuddlement by Karen Wiese-Thompson, is clueless about the effects she’s having on those still enslaved at Mount Vernon after the death of her husband. They want her to free them but she’s not sure about that.

“Who’s going to take care of me?” she wants to know.

Besides, she has been so nice to them, never mind the weirdness of the family values of her household. Ann (Monica Scott) is not just Martha’s personal slave but also her half-sister. Even more, it’s suggested, Ann’s son, William (Domino D’Lorion), is both Martha’s cousin and grandson.

One of the fabulous things about centering the work in a fever dream is that it grants such wide creative freedom. Yousefzadeh and her cast take full advantage of this at Mixed Blood, where Matt Lefebvre’s multilevel set includes a king-sized platform bed and Zamora Simmons’ costumes plop us into history, even if that past is married to contemporary sounds.

Resplendent in wig and period costumes, Mikell Sapp’s George Washington arrives from his crypt to testify at his widow’s trial. She can free the captives, he tells the court, before peace-ing out. Sapp also plays house slave Davy and teams with Darius Dotch’s Sucky Boy for entertaining song and dance to make light of their ridiculous situation.

For his part, Dotch is also a stitch as both a Chippendale-style Thomas Jefferson rising out of Martha’s bed and as a buttoned-down Lawyer Man who can’t keep control of his client.

As Ann, who, for too long, has carried everything in her bones and maligned body, Scott delivers a performance that feels like the tripwire for a controlled explosion. You see the sparks in her eyes and know that a boom is coming soon, perhaps even after we leave the theater.

“Miz Martha” shares something with Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Both have supernatural experiences meant to help her change natural behavior. But unlike Scrooge, who sees the light after a visitation by ghosts, Martha does not have a conversion.

By passing up the chance to free her own soul by freeing those under her yoke, the first first lady left those at Mount Vernon to muddle through, and, as the play says, to offer their own light in her darkness while inviting us to howl at all the surreal contradictions.

Where: Mixed Blood Theatre, 1501 S. 4th St., Mpls.

When: 10 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. Wed., 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends March 31.

Tickets: Free but donations are accepted. 612-338-6131 or mixedblood.com.