Local theater company Deuce Theatre is in the middle of their latest production called The Duncan Storm. It’s a provocative interpretation of a 100-year-old story of a black man who was convicted of of murdering a Jewish merchant in downtown Charleston. The resulting hanging was a racially charged circus that included houses of prostitution selling porch tickets to watch the spectacle.
Deuce Theatre decided to perform the play entirely in blackface — as a minstrel show. The first half is an onslaught of racial stereotypes that one audience member called “an equal opportunity offender”. The second half details the trial in a way that comes across like a surreal mash-up of Bamboozled and Law and Order.
The last performances are this weekend at the South of Broadway Theatre Company Studios in Park Circle.
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