'Pass Over' shows the sadistic tradition of undying Black grit and the hopelessness that ensues.

Overall, all of the little elements of the production were outstanding. The gruesome display of violence is a realistic look at how the hope of Black prosperity can easily disintegrate in hostile anti-Black environments. Around him, the duo instantly erases stereotypical behaviors that will make them more palatable, in the hope of being less killable, to police officers. Once Anderson steps into Ossifer's persona, he harasses and mocks Kitch and Moses, using racial slurs and beating the two men, calling them boys. It's a fantastic display of how white cognitive dissonance will always clash with Black trauma and hypervigilance. He even enjoys a picnic on the block that Moses and Kitch are begging to move from. He does not duck when he hears the rapid gunshots and cannot remember if his mother or his mother' 'hired woman' makes pinto beans a certain way. Mister displays an out-of-touchness that many non-Black Americans can feel toward Black communities. Anderson plays Mister and Ossifer, meaning Officer, which is a fantastic distortion of the word if you say it too quickly, like you're panicking about being killed. The duo's onstage chemistry makes them feel familiar.Д«ut all that changes when Mister, a random white man portrayed by Danny Anderson, enters the play. Though that place may not exist in America, Moses and Kitch play around with the idea, and it's a moment to showcase Bullis' onstage vibrancy and Slater's hilarious skepticism, quizzing each other about the 'difference' between caviar and fish eggs. Bullis and Slater deftly depict the power struggles of Black masculinity, homophobia, hypermasculinity and hypersexuality.ДЄct I serves as an emotional journey from pessimistic to hopeful, the duo naming 10 things they'll receive once they make it out to the 'Promise Land,' a place where hood problems don't exist and being Black is not deadly. Julio, Andre, Justin with the elbow rash, Kev, Da'Quan, Fat Joe, Dumb Terry, Terry's cousin with the messed up knee, are all men who died and live on through Kitch's dreams of getting out, and their legacies could be trapped in that dream too. When Kitch recites a long list of his homies dying from gun violence, it helps stir emotions of the never-ending violence that Black people face in America. That is the point.Дahveed Bullis and Matt Slater are the respective actors of Moses and Kitch, giving phenomenal, multifaceted performances portraying a shared dream of 'getting up out the hood' by any means necessary. This could be any metropolitan American city. There is also a universal display of Black dialects as main characters Moses and Kitch bounce around their day using flavors of Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta slang, but the line deliveries are what make Pass Over so relatable. There is a Black presence throughout, with Wu-Tang apparel and MF Doom stickers on the light poles.

With an influence from Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot,' Pass Over tells the story of two Black men using escapism to find a way to escape their ghetto literally.Д®verything felt right about director Malcolm Pelles' production at Stage Left Theater. Pass Over, directed by Malcolm Pelles, is a captivating story of what it means to be Black in America, finding space for the funny, the hopeful and the deadly without forcing any of it in. Does it walk the thin line of egregious circumstance yet meaningful substance? While written with all audiences in mind, does it lose its Black authenticity with that responsibility? 15-Antoinette Nwandu's play 'Pass Over' had me nervous.

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