A National Football League team has just signed a successful running back, Luis Moreno, who had four all star years before being out for a season with a torn ACL. His contract is more than any other running back in NFL history.
It is 2016, before the opening of the last preseason football game, and in a game that we don’t see, we learn that Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers took a knee when they started playing the “Star Spangled Banner.” His goal was to use that social platform to bring to the attention of the many viewers, the issues of the oppression of people of color and of police brutality. Much of the country was infuriated by what they felt was his act of disrespect toward flag and country.
From these two events, emerge stories and substories about four teammates in the locker room as they try to come to grips with their own pasts and their futures. “Moreno,” by Pravin Wilkin, is a powerful drama on the stage at InterAct Theatre and it is both captivating and entertaining.
When he arrives, Moreno meets the defensive captain Ezekiel Williams, (Charvez Grant) who has been on the team for ten years. He was a part of the Super Bowl winning teams of the past. But he has questions about his meaning in life, not having followed the pattern his parents. They were Black Panther activists, who saw his being a professional football player as little more than a form of slavery with money. There is Cre’von Garcon (Abdul Sesay), a younger player who tries to be a peacemaker. And there is the white quarterback, Danny Lombardo (Gabriel W. Elmore), who only cares about one thing- winning. Can the new man coming off his injury help that goal?
It is an ethnically missed group- two African Americans, a white guy, and the new star, a Mexican-American, born in the United States from a mother who came when she was a child. He is happy to be making the big bucks, though the veteran Williams has been asked to take a pay cut to help finance the signing.
There are the usual conflicts about who’s in charge- the man making all the money or the quarterback captain. How much respect does the new guy get? Through all the banter there is tons of cursing albeit in the context of locker room chatter. And then, there is the issue of where each player stands on the Colin Kaepernick decision to kneel down. Is it a matter of principle or is it the fear of getting put off the team and losing their hefty incomes that determine their decisions?
It is the emotion of these four football players, who come from different backgrounds, that make this such a strong play. Though each one asks of himself what is the best course, even their positions change as they are affected by outside events. We feel for them.
Pravin-Williams has written a play that may seem simple at first but is most complex in giving us these very complicated men. And Directors Seth Rozin and J. Paul Nicholas have cast and directed four strong actors to present the story on the eve of Trump’s first presidency and the month after. Making its U.S. debut, “Moreno” is sure to get more exposure around the country. It was exciting to be in its first audience.
“Moreno” by Pravin Wilkins at InterAct Theatre Company at The Drake, 302 S. Hicks St., Philadelphia, PA 19102, 215-568-8079 interacttheatre.org Thru November 24, 2024
Philadelphia Theater Reviews by Frank Burd 