The American Tradition

In Ray Yamanouchi's very dark comedy, set in a cockeyed version of the antebellum South, a light-skinned woman poses as a white male slaver and tries to escape to Pennsylvania with her husband—but gets derailed by various whites along the way. Axel Avin Jr. directs the premiere, which whooshes by in a taut 75 minutes and features exceptionally committed acting from a cast of five: Danie Steel, Martin K. Lewis, Sydney Cole Alexander, Hunter Canning and the remarkable Alex Herrald as a hard-drinking, fast-talking plantation owner.