By 1961, Paris was not so gay for Josephine Baker.
The French still loved her, as they had since 1928, when she first wowed them with her risque song-and-dance cabaret act.
But Baker, often considered the first black international superstar, was at a crossroads. Her beloved mother had recently died, leaving her in a tailspin of grief. Creditors hounded her. And the United States, her native country, continued to treat her like a second-class citizen.
Sloan Robinson takes audiences back to this unsettled period in Baker’s life in her one-woman show, Bananas, which is being performed during the National Black Theatre Festival.
As befitting a tribute to the multitalented Baker, the show combines drama, comedy and music to recount her rise from the slums of East St. Louis to the grand stages of Europe.
Robinson, who also wrote the play, has been playing the role of Baker since May 2008.
She slips easily into her skin, whether she is prancing around in tights and a corset or hysterically imitating a drunken Bessie Smith.
The 65-minute play is set in what appears to be Baker’s bedroom in her Paris apartment.
She is exhausted after rehearsing for a tour that she hopes will fill her coffers and allow her to keep her chateau.
While sorting through her mail, Baker reads a request from a long-time fan who wants to write her biography.
That prompts Baker to turn to the framed picture of her mother and reflect on some of the highlights of her life.
And what highlights they are—rubbing elbows with Picasso and Hemingway in Paris’ Jazz Age, serving as a spy for the French resistance in World War II and driving French men wild with her racy costumes, including a skirt made of bananas.
Beyond entertainment, the play is a revealing look at a woman whose legacy is an important one, despite that banana skirt.
■ Lisa O’Donnell can be reached at 727-7420 or at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
■ Bananaswill be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Ring Theatre at Wake Forest University. Admission is $37. For tickets, go by the Benton Convention Center.