by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
A theatre troupe finds an escape from the realities of incarceration through the creation of a stage play in this film based on a real-life rehabilitation program and featuring a cast that includes formerly incarcerated actors, Sing Sing.
Every six months, the men gather in a circle of chairs, often looking to Divine G (Colman Domingo) to help decide their next play. When he recruits a new member called Divine Eye, he gets more than he bargained for. The group’s dynamic begins to shift as Divine Eye suggests they do a comedy for the first time, prompting the men to throw out a jumble of wild ideas — from pirate ships to Roman gladiators to Old West gunfights. Flustered at first, Divine G quickly starts to see Divine Eye’s discomfort with the vulnerability required for what seems like a silly pursuit. While planning for his clemency hearing, he tries to forge a connection with Eye, as the men collectively unpack the pain of their experience while undergoing the joy and escape of creativity.
Sing Sing is written by John H. Richardson, Brent Buell, and Clint Bentley. It stars Domingo, Clarence Maclin, Sean San Jose, Sean Dino Johnson, and Paul Raci. Greg Kwedar (The Jockey) directed the film. Except for Domingo and Raci, most of the actors in the film are real-life “graduates” of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program at Sing Sing prison.
After the Toronto screening of the film, director Greg Kwedar was introduced to the audience. Kwedar received two minutes of enthusiastic applause. When Kwedar shocked the audience by bringing the entire cast of the movie, including Colman Domingo, who was at TIFF for a special award, to the stage, the audience showered the actors in a rousing six-minute standing ovation.
This film is that impressive. The whole story is a tale depicting the transformational power of the arts. The men in the film subject themselves (and the audience) to a level of heart-wrenching vulnerability that defies the African-American male experience, even calling each other “beloved” instead of the n-word. At the essence of the RTA program, each member of the troupe has to lay themselves bare before each other, accept each one for who they are, and push each other to be their greatest self. Kwedar captures the essence of theater and of incarceration in this powerhouse study of male self-discovery.
The plot of the movie feels a bit formulaic and familiar however, the fact that the story is based upon real people and real situations makes the film so much more powerful and inspiring. Domingo himself is excellent in his performance and normally would be considered brilliant but in this cast, his work is just one of a dozen. All the performances here are superb. Nonetheless, Domingo’s performance as the central character (based upon the life of Clarence Maclin) propels him immediately into award consideration.
The Rehabilitation Through the Arts program started in 1996 at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. It has now expanded to six prisons in the New York state system and leads both women and men through workshops in theater, music, dance, and other performing arts. The program boasts a recidivism rate of less than three percent from its graduates after five years of release. The national average is fifty-five percent.
Rated R for language throughout, Sing Sing is a triumphant and inspirational story about finding oneself in one of the worst places to be found, prison. It is also a declaration of the power of true rehabilitation that rarely happens within the prison system. But when outside-of-the-box programming occurs within the system, lives can truly be positively changed.
Grade: A