A rousing 'Ain't No Mo'' poses a provocative question

I’m unsure if I’ve ever been as moved, devastated and simultaneously entertained as when I watched Front Porch Arts Collective and SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of Jordan E. Cooper’s “Ain’t No Mo’” (through Feb. 8).

The play starts with a spirited sermon delivered by Pastor Freeman behind a kente-striped podium. It’s 2008, and Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States. The pastor, an excellent De’Lon Grant, tells church mothers donning bejeweled hats — cooling themselves with paper fans — that on account of the election, things are changing. He is giving a sermonic eulogy of sorts for the funeral of Brother Righttocomplain. Now that Obama is president, there will be no more “discrimination, holleration or hateration,” he explains. Read more.