In 1937, while aggression from Mussolini’s Italy threatened to destroy the empire of Ethiopia, and Emperor Haile Selassie pleaded his country’s case with the League of Nations, Arthur Arent saw an opportunity. In writing Ethiopia he created the first “Living Newspaper,” using headlines and clips of speeches from leaders around the globe spoken by actors to tell this story. However, after finding out that Arent wanted to include a speech by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the end of the work, the Roosevelt administration banned it. As a result, we are only now in 2025 seeing Ethiopia for the first time, and it could not be more timely given today’s global conflicts.
The first thing to note about this production is its intimacy. The performance I saw was at the Baltimore Theatre Project, a blackbox theater, and as an audience member I felt quite immersed in the world of the show. Although at times I had trouble hearing the spoken lines over the drums and piano – I would have liked to see what effect amplification of the actors would have – the proximity of the audience to the stage and actors helped.
The show as presented by InSeries is in two acts, and the first act is Arthur Arent’s creation. It opens with singing as the actors enter the stage, but one quickly realizes as the show progresses that most of the work is spoken. I think this illustrates the company’s commitment to “theater that sings.” It doesn’t matter whether the cast is singing or speaking; Ethiopia’s story is operatic in scale, what with the world leaders and events surrounding the central conflict. And still, this is a work and a company that demands true singing actors. I believe each cast member fulfilled this demand.
To understand how good this cast was, know that each actor in this show was asked to play multiple characters, and that they did so to great effect. By way of example, in the first act, Shana Oshiro dominated the League of Nations meeting as its chair, dropping the octave and darkening the timbre of her voice in a way that uniquely grabbed my attention and stuck with me even after the show ended. I would have loved to hear more of her singing, too, as in the second act we got to hear her glorious soprano as she sang spirituals. In my opinion, hers was the standout performance of the afternoon.
Besides the chair of the League of Nations, the actors played different countries and leaders in the first act, such as Great Britain, France, and of course Italy and Ethiopia. This showed to good dramatic effect the debate among the nations and also the frustration that comes with playing politics while people in a war zone suffer. In particular, there was an audible groan from the audience when, at the end of the act, the League decides to lift all sanctions against Italy, effectively withdrawing their support for Ethiopia. The act ended with an AI-generated speech by FDR that included some language the current President has used in reference to African countries, a chilling reminder of how history has a way of repeating itself and of the danger that dismissive, reductive language can present when lives are at stake.
The second act of Ethiopia featured the collaboration between playwright Sybil Williams and Janelle Gill. Gill, at the piano for the duration of the show, in creating her element of this piece created an eclectic blend of jazz, classical, African, and African-American spirituals that I felt brought the show home by the end. After all, Haile Selassie’s Pan-Africanism and fight for freedom for Ethiopia resonated with black Americans fighting for their own civil rights, so it felt appropriate that this new play should say something about both. I will note that sometimes it was hard to keep track when both spoken word and singing happened at the same time, but I understood the juxtaposition that the playwright and composer were going for.
Along with the American Civil Rights Movement and how it related to Ethiopia, the second act of Ethiopia spoke more about the contribution of Mayme Richardson as an opera singer who, having performed for the Ethiopian emperor and empress, used her platform to speak out about the injustices being done to the country. Nakia Verner as Richardson delivered a sensitive “O patria mia” that was woven into the script, illustrating the irony of Verdi’s Aida as an Italian opera about an Ethiopian princess, particularly in light of Mussolini’s use of fervent Italian nationalism as a weapon against the Ethiopian cause.
Now, to the production aspect of this show. Tim Nelson’s stage direction was, first and foremost, effective. Having seen his work before in The Cradle Will Rock earlier this season, I was pleased to see the same heart and creativity in this production. For example, during a League of Nations meeting, during one of the speeches, each actor one by one turned their chair and slammed it down onto the floor, interrupting the speech and conveying not by words but just by use of props the rejection the speaker was facing. Overall, it was clear that Nelson had a vision for this production, and he, along with the team, brought it to life. The only thing I would have liked to see different as far as anything visual to do with the production was the projection screens. The screens on which important texts, pictures, and videos were projected seemed wrinkled in the second act such that I could not read them and had trouble seeing what the images were. Still, such a thing could not detract from the feeling that I was witnessing something momentous. After 90 years, it was high time this work got a production, and my hope is that we dare to expect more productions of Ethiopia to come.
Maggie Ramsey
Ethiopia
By Arthur Arent and Sybil R. Williams
Music by Janelle Gill
Cast and Production Staff:
Ezinne Elele; Elise Jenkins; Madison Norwood; Shana Oshiro; Daniel J. Smith; Nakia Verner; Marvin Wayn
Stage Director – Timothy Nelson; Music Director and Composer – Janelle Gill; Costume Designer – Rakell Foye; Set Designers – Kathryn Kawecki and Nadia Kuffar; Design Artists – Tsedaye Makonnen and Adrienne Gaither; Lighting Designer – Alberto Segarra; Projections Designer – Hailey LaRoe; Stage Manager & Lightboard Operator – Mikayla Talbert; Production Manager – Paige Washington; Technical Director – Megan Amos
Baltimore Theater Project, Baltimore, Maryland, June 1, 2025
Top image: L to R Elise Jenkins, Madison Norwood, Nakia Verner, Ezinne Elele, Marvin Wayne
All photos by Bayou Elom