Brooklyn Quartet (all four episodes)

Brooklyn Quartet is a fictional tale that is bookmarked by the very real story of Sean Bell being shot to death in 2006 in an altercation with NYC Police officers. It is a story about 3 kids who grow up together in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, who become best friends; who love each other, and who eventually almost destroy one another, and is told by an angel named Queen. It is an exploration of how life treats each of them, both individually and collectively, over the course of 20 years, quite differently, simply because of who each of them are. Saint is black, Jamaal is white and Esther is Latina. The story is sprinkled with racism, sexism, ptsd and white privilege, but mainly Brooklyn Quartet is a love story; a beautifully tragic love story.

"Rock Wilk ’s BROOKLYN QUARTET—his stunning, one-man hurricane of a show that exposes the savage truth of America’s white-skin privilege... the story of three teens in Brooklyn whose lives intertwine, enrich, and ultimately define each other. It is within this relationship—a deep and warm mingling of race and class—that the awful underbelly of America’s divide is revealed.

Mr. Wilk gives sincerely nuanced dimension to each character, and has given the story variations of pacing that at once hold attention but also allow time to reflect, and as he says, “breathe.”

There is something almost uncanny in the way Wilk delivers three-way conversations, two-person arguments and adds a fourth “every man” narrator without assuming different positions to indicate different characters—and still enables the audience never to lose track of who is speaking. I’ll repeat—that theatric accomplishment alone defines QUARTET as unique in the field."- Brent Buell