SING SING

By Marc S. Sanders

Coleman Domingo is that under the radar actor who is on his way to becoming a marquee name.  Of late, I’m loving everything he’s participating in. Check out the Netflix series The Madness and the acclaimed film Rustin for which he received a well-deserved Oscar nomination. His second Oscar nominated role in another of 2024’s best films, Sing Sing, is directed by Greg Kwedar.  As soon as this film begins, you will fall in love with Domingo’s role as he completes a stage performance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  However, the theatre that is bursting with applause is located within the infamous Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison.  Coleman Domingo portrays a resident here as wrongly imprisoned John “Divine G” Whitfield.

Divine G is a founder and one of a handful of prisoners who cope with their caged lifestyle as members of the Rehabilitation Through The Arts program (RTA).  Every six months, the RTA prepare a play to perform for the prison population and other local benefactors.  Their director is Brent (Paul Raci), a much smaller guy than anyone in the troupe, white, tattooed and on the tail end of a hippie middle age.  Yet, the men trust their leader and he is nothing but encouraging with theatre exercises to uphold their spirits and get everyone energized. 

A new member of the group does not appear to have much promise.  Clarence Maclin (played by Clarence Maclin) stems from a hard living street life of gang culture.  While he champions the suggestion of a comedy for the next production, he is nevertheless resistant to engage and perform as Hamlet with the famed To Be Or Not To Be monologue.  Divine G works to penetrate Clarence’s stubbornness and get him to recognize how the program can be beneficial and enriching.  Consider Divine a combination of Red and Andy from The Shawshank Redemption – a well-respected realist but also a teacher.  Divine even takes it upon himself to prepare Clarence for his upcoming parole hearing, while he’s getting himself ready, following new evidence that may exonerate him.

Brent collects ideas from all of the men who are enthused to stage ancient Egyptians, cowboys, pirates, Hamlet, and even Freddy Krueger.  Rather than pick one, Brent takes the weekend to write a 148-page script that has all of these elements.  The spine of the plot?  Time travel!  Makes sense, and as Clarence originally suggested, it most certainly is a comedy.

I read that Sing Sing is collectively owned by the cast and crew.  Many people who worked on this production play characterizations of themselves and use their actual names and prison monikers in the dramatization of this film.  They produced and wrote the screenplay, designed the characters based on themselves and their experiences, having been members of the RTA.  The auditions for the play you see in the film are the actual auditions the cast did to be part of the film. So, be ready to be impressed because these rehabilitated prisoners, now actors, are outstanding. 

Coleman Domingo in the leading role only makes the whole cast look even better.  He is absorbed in this environment.  B28, his assigned prison cell, looks like a sanctuary for the plays that he writes with inspiring and researched articles taped to his walls and a typewriter to click away on.  With his wise looking gold rimmed eyeglasses, he looks like a guy who knows every corner of every room, every chip on every wall, every blade of grass within the courtyards and auditoriums.  Divine G may not belong here, but he’s all the more familiar and depended upon by the men he resides with.  Partnered with Clarence Maclin, the two actors have duet scenes that work effectively with one relaxed in the comfort of hope and promise while the other is ready to give up on any kind of prosperity or semblance of a future.

Sing Sing is about the incarcerated men who put on plays to nurture the days of punishment they are sentenced to serve.  Yet, the actual film could also operate like a live stage play.  It has more of that feel than anything traditionally cinematic. These men converse and discuss like a committee seated in a circle while determining the next best thing for the program.  They are led by Brent in exercises that allow them to reflect on past moments in their respective histories.  They do the silly walks to shed insecurities that come with urging the brave face needed to perform in front of people.

An extra reward arrives during the end credits when personal cell phone footage shows clips of the various plays that have been produced among the prison population.  Everything from their inventive stage sets to their costumes and lighting along with their blocking is extraordinary.  To bring men who once lived among a world of violence towards the escape of theatrics seems unheard of.  I mean, really, a gang member can now perform Shakespeare? 

Films have the ability to show what’s unheard of and what’s daring. They are not just run of the mill Mission: Impossible movies with the wildest stunts imaginable.  A courageous feat also comes from the theatre. Sing Sing reveals the most unlikely people to accomplish what no one could ever envision they would relate to. 

Sing Sing is an inspiringly beautiful piece of performance work from every member of its cast, in addition to Oscar nominee Coleman Domingo.