In Big
Ease, Big Sleaze, Rita Shelton Deverell tells
stories about people living in New Orleans before and after Hurricane
Katrina. While I found her performance to be energetic and entertaining, I
didn’t care for this show. The first couple of stories (about a friend
who lost everything and about whites and blacks evacuating the city) had very
little emotional impact and seemed more like stories on the evening news. Yes,
we know that in general the poorer black people were more adversely affected
by Katrina than the more affluent white people. However the last story about
2 Canadians who came down to New Orleans to help with the cleanup and
instead got a new perspective on life was touching.
