Cleveland Public Theatre’s ‘Dontrell’ is a moving, modern-day parable

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics

Nathan Davis’ “Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea” is an absolutely beautiful and poignant piece of storytelling.

Dontrell Jones III, an intelligent, idealistic and driven 18-year-old, is about to embark on an opportunity of a lifetime – a free-ride to Johns Hopkins – that will break the chain of lower-middle class existence to which generations of his family have been bound.    

But shortly before his departure to college, Dontrell dreams of an ancestor who dives off of a slave ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and drowns in order to avoid a life of servitude.  

Dontrell decides to make a similarly courageous and impetuous choice by walking away from the scholarship – his future – in order to find the truth about his past.  Although he cannot swim, he knows that he must go to sea, meet the spirit of the forgotten man who changed the family’s narrative, and better understand his heritage.  One must look back, the playwright tells us, before moving forward.

The play takes us on one young black man’s journey – a journey infused with hip hop, African dance and ancient ritual – but his quest of self-discovery is as ageless and genderless as it is colorblind.

It takes place in Baltimore but explores the mysteries of the universe.

And while the play possesses an interesting and necessary layer of social commentary, it is balanced by an overriding theatricality.  The script begs to be staged with uninhibited artistry and an aura of mysticism, so that the past and the present, the real and the spiritual, and free-will and fate can beautifully and seamlessly coexist. 

In short, “Dontrell” is a whimsical, poetic and delicate 90-minute, one-act parable.  It is getting its rolling world premiere at Cleveland Public Theatre under Megan Sandberg-Zakian’s direction.

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