Tar - Tom Jacobson

  “Water is a vivid metaphor in Los Angeles. We live in a desert beside an ocean, an existence of simultaneous want and plenitude.
   Another, lesser-known water source inspires The Ballad of Bimini Baths, a trio of plays by local playwright Tom Jacobson. Bimini was a popular swimming and spa complex at the site of hot springs one block east of Vermont Avenue between 1st and 2nd streets, operated from 1903 to 1951.
   Jacobson makes this the nexus of a wide-ranging tale that pulls together events in L A history, some of which occurred at the baths, others not. His theme is sins in need of being washed away—racism as well as other moral failings.
   The intriguing result is being staged by three small theaters, all running different plays ranging from 55 minutes to 1½ hours.
   The final play is an inspiring tale of people working together to try to redeem the past and re-chart the future. The first two, though, take on disturbing topics that can be difficult to watch and aren’t easily resolved in brief, short-story-like formats…
   Jacobson’s fascination with mercurial/chameleonic human nature—seen in such plays as TAINTED BLOOD, OUROBOROS and THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY WAY—takes daring forms in these first two Bimini plays…
   The theme of racism begins to well up in the middle play, TAR…
   …Dread builds as events progress through a number of sharp turns… What resides under the skin of each person in the room: A pure heart? Or pure evil?”
Daryl H Miller, Los Angeles Times

   “It’s Los Angeles in 1939. Count Basie and his band are scheduled to play at the Palomar Ballroom—one of the first African-American groups to perform there. Next door, at Bimini Baths, two employees, African-American Amen and Mexican-American Zenobio have been given the onerous job of cleaning up the tar-covered body of a drunken white man who has tumbled into the La Brea Tar Pits. Playwright Tom Jacobson has laid the groundwork for a host of racial conflicts before a word is spoken.
   As the two men scrub the tar-covered figure down with kerosene, they discuss ways of getting in to see Basie at the Palomar, which does not admit blacks or Latinos. Slowly the man, whose name is Donald, regains consciousness. A xenophobic German-American, he immediately proves intransigent. Amen, a former Pullman Porter turned actor, enjoys baiting him, whereas Zenobio tries to play peacemaker. Eventually they learn that Donald’s wife has died that very day, and their suspicions are aroused. Did he kill his wife? Was she unfaithful? And was it with a black man?
   When Zenobio finds a shocking piece of evidence in the pocket of Donald’s tar-covered pants, these suspicions seem confirmed.  And as the conflicts mount, there may be dark secrets in Amen’s past as well.”
Neal Weaver, Stage Raw