B A C K S T A G E
Liza Jessie Peterson takes some shots at society, occasionally slipping some statistics about the prison system into her long monologue told in the persona of Betsy Laquanda Ross, but the overall tone of The Peculiar Patriot ™ is girlfriend-confidential comedy.
Like Whoopi Goldberg, Peterson has invented a character whose existence is a commentary. Ross is savvy, charming and funny as she brings news from outside to an unseen girfriend in prison - and we gradually gather that just about everyone she knows is doing time or just got out. Peterson can get a laugh just by sucking on a tooth, or repeating "yep" as she describes the new boyfriend who caused her to break her "no ppp" (post-penitentuary pussy) rule.
Like her colonial flag-making namesake, Ross sews. Her "flag" is a "memory quilt" with a square for each friend fighting the" war against the crime on drugs" and serving time. Each square has a yellow ribbon, except the one for the guy who is continuing to sell drugs in prison. His is decorated with a big black "s" for "stupid". She learned to sew in "juvy" (juvenille detention) from a miss Jefferson (coincidence?).
The evening begins with a short film of loved ones of inmates and Peterson's impassioned poem "American Kelloids" (Peterson has performed on HBO's Def Poetry Jam) some of the facts that surface in the monologue are startling. Ross is convincing as well as fierry when she claims that blacks have been suffering from "domestic terrorism" since they arrived. "We not worried about Al-Queda, we worried about Al-Cracka". But Ross is not anti-American. As she says, she's a "true patriot - aiding and encouraging the forces".
The Peculiar Patriot ™ is in the middle of a 25-city prison tour to do just that. Along the way, she charms us as well.
