‘Until the Flood,’ told through individual monologues, premieres at Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre

Jazzma Pryor and Jasmine “Jaz” Robertson perform in “Until the Flood” at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre.

Navya Singh, Reporter

October 27, 2024

Playwright Dael Orlandersmith’s “Until the Flood” premiered on Saturday at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, exploring the 2014 social uprising in Ferguson, Missouri, after a police officer shot 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Orlandersmith said the play’s characters are inspired by interviews she conducted with Ferguson residents during the period of social unrest, addressing themes of police brutality and racism throughout the play.

Told through monologues by individual characters, actor Jazzma Pryor and actor Jasmine “Jaz” Robertson portray nine characters of different races, genders and ages.

“Three of my four characters are white,” Robertson said. “That has been a challenge, just in adapting and crafting it and really submerging into that sort of space to get through those characters.”

While the story is based on real-life events and interviews with real people, Pryor said the show characters are fictional, allowing for more flexibility in shaping them.

In one scene, Robertson’s character has an emotional moment of realization: he could have been in Brown’s shoes.

“The actors made you feel like they were that person,” audience member Mimi Livesley said. “They could change hands and become somebody else.”

Pryor said she hoped audiences would reflect on their own perspectives and not default to preconceived impressions of people based on appearance.

“I would love for audiences to go in there just with a clean slate and an open mind,” she said.

The production has performances scheduled every weekend through Nov.10.

Robertson said she also hopes the audience pays attention to the set, a mural painted by artist Sarah Kaiser. In the mural, the text “R. I. P. Michael Brown” is written with silhouettes of people holding their hands up, as if being pointed at with a gun.

“It’ll be good for the audience to have that anchor in the mural to go back and reference,” Robertson said. “It’s a very core part of the show and what the show is about.”

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