Funnyman Richard Pryor was arguably the Black stand-up comedian who most changed the game. Although Redd Foxx, Dick Gregory, and Bill Cosby came before him, it was Pryor’s unabashed style of speaking his truth through humor that broke barriers around race and sex and influenced a new generation of comics. Finally, a play inspired by Pryor’s life and work is set to hit the stage after a three-year delay. The play had previously been scheduled to hit the Chicago stage in 2012 with actor Isaiah Washington in the lead role. However, lack of major funding halted its run.
Unspeakable, a new seven-character show presented as a “dramatic fantasia,” is headed to the Broadway Playhouse in Chicago for a five-week engagement that begins on October 6. It will be directed by Rod Gailes OBC, and will star James Murray Jackson Jr. as Pryor. Gailes, an alumnus of the NYU Graduate Film Program, directed the first developmental workshop of Disney’s The Lion King Jr. in partnership with Disney Theatricals and Harlem School of the Arts, and most recently, the Araca Project’s Cake by Shawn Nabors. Gailes and Jackson co-authored Unspeakable, which originally debuted at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2005. For his portrayal of Pryor, Jackson received the Festival’s Outstanding Lead Actor Award and was noted by New York Times for his “magnetic lead performance.”
The show, billed as “an unflinching look at the life and times of an iconic comedic genius,” spans the majority of Pryor’s life, focusing on the period between 1967 and 1982. Pryor, the first African American to host “Saturday Night Live,” was the son of a prostitute and a pimp who grew up in a brothel owned and operated by his grandmother in the town of Peoria, IL. He later made wisecracks on stage about his unconventional upbringing. He joked about his sex life, his marriages, his relationship with cocaine and even about having a heart attack. Pryor died in 2005 from multiple sclerosis.
In an interview, Unspeakable co-author and director Gailes said, “Richard Pryor broke down barriers and stereotypes once thought unimaginable, said the unspeakable, and did the unthinkable. He taught us by holding a mirror to the conscience of America while self-destructing, and imploding on his own pain and grief. Though flawed in life, he lived uninhibited onstage. He was part preacher, social commentator, political activist, addict and a whole lot of devil. Richard ushered in a groundbreaking style which paved the way for a generation of comedians. He was able to convert his painful personal experiences and searing political observations into mainstream comedy.”
Unspeakable is presented by Tenacity Park, Creative Mind Entertainment, OBC DreamTheatre, Stefani Nicole Von Huben, and Kenneth Schapiro.
