January 16, 2005: Headlines: COS - Mauritania: Theatre: Musicals: Hollywood: LA Weekly: Review of "The Time When I Was Mamadou" written and performed by Mauritania RPCV Matt Gould
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January 16, 2005: Headlines: COS - Mauritania: Theatre: Musicals: Hollywood: LA Weekly: Review of "The Time When I Was Mamadou" written and performed by Mauritania RPCV Matt Gould
Review of "The Time When I Was Mamadou" written and performed by Mauritania RPCV Matt Gould
Review of "The Time When I Was Mamadou" written and performed by Mauritania RPCV Matt Gould
Red-haired, Jewish, gay and whiter than toothpaste, when Matt Gould moreover pronounces “I am a black man and I am proud,” it is truth best swallowed whole. Gould’s apocryphal genetics can’t deny his initial thrill at arriving in Mauritania, West Africa, for a two-year Peace Corps stint.
Quickly, he learns that Western “enlightenment” (female circumcision and the like) will be a harder sell than he figured in a village where, until three years ago, most people had never encountered the telephone. Incorporating song, dance, beat-poetry-style ruminations and toilet humor, Gould’s talented tale of disillusionment is as patchwork as the labels he slaps on his chest. Less cohesive is his saga’s actual point.
While Gould captures the wrenching struggle of acceptance every naive do-gooder faces in an utterly foreign land, his tone vacillates between peevish and pathos. It’s promising entertainment that’s frustratingly off-kilter.
Director Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter must encourage Gould to sacrifice a few choruses to flesh out some fascinating anecdotes that are given short shrift. His all-female production of Romeo and Juliet, translated by Gould into Pulaar, merits barely a few minutes, and his blindsiding romance with a betrothed Muslim girl remains teasingly unresolved.
Gould’s final thoughts imply that ultimately he enlisted more for self-help than to help, an intriguingly centric unawareness both foretold by and incongruous with his ready admittance that he decided upon Africa while grooving to the Toto hit at a leather bar.
Hudson Mainstage Theater, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Jan. 30. (323) 960-7735. Written 01/16/2005 (Amy Nicholson)
When this story was posted in January 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Latest: RPCVs and Peace Corps provide aid Peace Corps made an appeal last week to all Thailand RPCV's to consider serving again through the Crisis Corps and more than 30 RPCVs have responded so far. RPCVs: Read what an RPCV-led NGO is doing about the crisis an how one RPCV is headed for Sri Lanka to help a nation he grew to love. Question: Is Crisis Corps going to send RPCVs to India, Indonesia and nine other countries that need help? |
| The World's Broken Promise to our Children Former Director Carol Bellamy, now head of Unicef, says that the appalling conditions endured today by half the world's children speak to a broken promise. Too many governments are doing worse than neglecting children -- they are making deliberate, informed choices that hurt children. Read her op-ed and Unicef's report on the State of the World's Children 2005. |
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
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Story Source: LA Weekly
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Mauritania; Theatre; Musicals; Hollywood
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