Jordan E. Cooper is a playwright of reclamation. In his previous 2022 play at The Public Theater, “Ain’t No Mo,” he set out to reclaim Black America, the contributions of its people, and the narratives. It was a sharp satire with a laser focused subtext. One of the characters, Peaches, a flight attendant played by Cooper in drag, said of the theater, “This is your church.”
In his latest play, “Oh Happy Day!” running at The Public through November 2, Cooper has gone to church more literally with a stunning reimagining of the Noah story from the Bible. Here, Cooper is reclaiming God and faith for people who might be marginalized or outright rejected by traditional (read: evangelical) churches.
The play is deeply personal for Cooper.
“Growing up Black and queer in the South, I loved God, and I believed in everything,” Cooper explained. “It was hard to grapple with the idea that I was going to hell, or that God hated me.”
Cooper added: “It was almost like there was a flicker of a flame of a candle that was inside of me, and even though the world kept trying to blow that out and say God didn’t belong to me, for some reason that flame would never blow out. And this play was about me trying to understand why, even though the world was telling me one thing, this flame of God’s love was still trying to flicker inside of me — and understanding what that meant.”
While Cooper also talked about exploring how divinity can show up in life, in the play, he takes that literally. It opens with three characters called Divines whose job is to shepherd souls to heaven. They have come to guide Keyshawn, also played by Cooper, who was shot dead that morning on his journey. Before he can go, however, God has a mission for him. Keyshawn must rescue his family by building a boat that will save them from an impending flood.
Keyshawn has been alienated from his family, though, and that separation originated in the family’s religious belief that somehow, because of his sins and actions, Keyshawn is not deserving of love or acceptance. The central conflict of the play is in his trying to overcome that rift, see beyond dogma, and encounter people as they are. In a time-honored literary (and scriptural) tradition, rendered new in this telling, an ongoing argument with God defines Keyshawn’s journey.
It is not an easy path for any of the characters to negotiate, and Cooper crafts a fair fight, with both sides of issues presented fairly. As Cooper says, “When I write a character, I always believe that whoever is speaking is right.”
Additionally, he said that he wrote the play before he had fully come out to his parents and that it is not always easy to have hard conversations with friends and families.
“Sometimes,” he said, “it’s just about trying. You don’t have to see the finish line. You don’t know what started or what door will open.”
The path, though, Cooper says, is through grace.
“Whenever we take a second to acknowledge and love each other, give each other grace and patience, that’s the physical manifestation of God.”
While this may sound polemical, the play most certainly is not. Rather, it’s highly entertaining, and as with “Ain’t No Mo,’” Cooper develops his themes through comedy (sometimes uproarious) and honesty. He gives his characters — and by extension the audience — space to feel, think, and wrestle with the issues and the conflicts raised — abetted marvelously by the interventions of God and the presence of the Divines.
Wrestling with the religious polarization of the current cultural climate is challenging and even dangerous for members of the LGBTQ community. It is what attracted Cooper to the story of Noah’s ark in the first place.
“When old things are washed away, it makes room for new things to grow,” he said.
Water is a powerful symbol in the Christian tradition. It signifies life, cleansing, and salvation. Cooper’s message is one of hope and the possibility of moving past our intellectual limitations into a greater understanding and the potential for the ultimate arrival at “Oh Happy Day!”
And you can take that to church.
Oh Happy Day! | The Public Theater | 425 Lafayette Street | Tues-Sat 7 p.m.; Sat, Sun 1 p.m., through November 2 | $109 at The Public Theater | 2 hours, 10 mins, 1 intermission
