Warscape Magazine: A Black community engages with the police in this NYC performance

“This isn’t a crime scene; this is a conflict.”

Standing out as one of the most powerful plays in this year’s New York International Fringe Festival, Uniform Justice offers diverse perspectives on the relationship between police and community in an urban setting, and serves as a springboard into a new method of community dialogue. Writer and director Chuk Obasi explores an urban Memphis neighborhood buckling to violence, shining light on the complexities that divide a community. The play is a successful overturn of the tropes that plague film and theater when depicting urban communities and their interactions with police, drawing attention to the incongruity of law and justice, and how suspicion has divided and paralyzed communities. After handing a megaphone to viewpoints too often overlooked, Obasi redirects his attention to the audience, turning viewers into contributors to the conversation, and creating a unique theater experience.