What would we learn if the dead could speak?
You’ll find out at the Colony Theatre this month in Miami New Drama’s world premiere of “Dangerous Days” by Nicholas Griffin.
Based on true events, the play takes a deep dive into the 1979 police murder of 33-year-old U.S. Marine veteran Arthur McDuffie through the lens of Miami Herald crime reporter Edna Buchanan. The intrepid young journalist – a rare woman in male-dominated newsrooms at the time – was courageous enough to reveal that Miami-Dade Police were lying and covering up events surrounding the traffic stop of a Black insurance agent who ended up in a coma that night and later died.
(FURIOSA Productions)
Roderick Randle (center) as Arthur McDuffie, surrounded by actors Caleb Scott, Rene Granado, Jovon Jacobs and Krystal Millie Valdes in a scene from “Dangerous Days.”
We learn that Buchanan’s choice to pursue the evidence instead of buying false police reports and looking the other way wasn’t terribly convenient for her. And while her unabashed pursuit of the facts brought truth to light, although not justice, the course of events had a profound effect on Miami that lingers to this day.
(Nicholas Griffin)
Nicholas Griffin’s “The Year of Dangerous Days” was published in 2020.
For those who weren’t here then or are too young to remember, five officers charged and tried before an all-white jury in McDuffie’s murder were acquitted in 1980, sparking a bloody and fiery three-day rampage through the streets of downtown Miami, Liberty City and Overtown – quelled by the Florida National Guard – that ended with a reported 18 people dead, 400 injured, 800 arrested and estimated property damage in excess of $80 million.
“Dangerous Days” takes us into the mind of Buchanan, the back offices of Miami-Dade PD, and the life and death of McDuffie, who is artfully given a voice in this story with theatrics we shall not reveal to avoid any spoilers. Suffice it to say that Buchanan and McDuffie become inextricably intertwined in a story that is equal parts mystery and human profile.
“The thing everyone would be expecting is that it’s Edna Buchanan’s play," said Griffin. "But what’s it like if you are the voiceless who is given a voice for a week or a month or two? You start to develop a conflict for the audience to determine whose play is it, Edna’s or McDuffie’s?”
(Vimeo)
Edna Buchanan in 2016 being interviewed at Books & Books in Miami Beach.
Such is the question posed by award-winning author and first-time playwright, who has adapted to the stage for Miami New Drama a storyline from his nonfiction book, “The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980,” first published in 2020.
New York-based actress Caitlin Clouthier is cast as Buchanan and Miami Gardens native Roderick Randle plays McDuffie. If you were fortunate enough to see Randle in Main Street Players’ 2022 production of “Topdog/Underdog,” you knowto expect a riveting performance. Six of the cast’s seven actors are from South Florida and most play multiple roles.
“He’s really dynamic and able to play multiple things at once to somebody who has been mostly a name to people for two generations,” director Jen Wineman said of Randle’s portrayal of McDuffie in March, just three days into rehearsals.
(Morgan Sophia Photography)
Director Jen Wineman speaking with actors at the first reading of “Dangerous Days” in March.
As for Clouthier, “Her audition was incredible,” said Wineman, a prolific New York director in the industry for 20 years, who was initially attracted to the play because of Buchanan’s role in the story.
“I saw it was from the perspective of this white, female journalist trying to navigate through all these systems … any kind of story that focusses on a strong woman coming up against sexist systems interests me,” Wineman told the Biscayne Times.
(Carlton Gillespie for Biscayne Times)
Arthur McDuffie in his U.S. Marine's uniform.
Buchanan’s character development was aided by the real-life Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer of 20 crime novels and nonfiction books, inspired by her 18 years of reporting with the Herald, although eliciting her cooperation wasn’t initially easy.
Griffin, a London-born, New York transplant who relocated to Miami in 2013, started research for his book in 2015 while “trying to get a grip on this bizarre town I had ended up in.”
“Edna was my very first phone call. We would speak frequently, but she would never want to go on record with me,” he said. “After trying for three years, she granted me an interview.”
It started with coffee, then Buchanan would talk as Griffin drove her around while she ran errands, evolving into “six- or seven hour-long” interviews. Now that Buchanan is reportedly suffering from dementia and being cared for in an assisted living facility, those hours together were clearly a gift that gave him unparalleled insight into her psyche and personality.
(Morgan Sophia Photography)
Caitlin Clouthier portrays Edna Buchanan (L) opposite Roderick Randle as Arthur Lee McDuffie. Both are seen here at the play’s first reading prior to the start of rehearsals last month.
But the book is about much more than Buchanan and McDuffie. It’s about Miami at the intersection of McDuffie’s murder, the Mariel boatlift and the drug wars made infamous by the “Miami Vice” television series. One review describes the book as an “engrossing, peek-between-your-fingers history of an American city on the edge.”
Former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferré, a central figure in the book who was a great resource to Griffin before he died, does not appear in the play. In fact, the book is so detailed in the intricate web it weaves, that adapting it to the stage seemed inconceivable to Griffin when he was approached to write the play by Michel Hausman, co-founder and artistic director of Miami New Drama.
“I looked at him like he was crazy,” Griffin said. “How on earth are we going to pack all that in?”
(FURIOSA Productions)
The cast of "Dangerous Days" in a scene depicting the Miami Herald newsroom circa 1980.
Hausman had it already figured out, suggesting the isolation of a major thread in the book focusing on Buchanan and McDuffie. Griffin agreed, launching the beginning of another creative process.
While the play unfolds at first blush as a quintessential Miami story, one can’t help wonder if the deadly 2020 arrest of George Floyd, subsequent demonstrations and police trials weren’t behind Hausman’s suggestion to focus on what became the plotline of “Dangerous Days.”
“The issue of police violence against Black Americans didn’t begin with McDuffie and certainly didn’t end with George Floyd. It’s a persistent blight on our society, with a sadly evergreen relevance,” said Hausman, explaining his thoughts behind the development of the play’s story arc. “This storyline stands out dramatically because it’s intensely personal; it explores the lives of two individuals who never crossed paths yet whose legacies are deeply entangled.”
And while “Dangerous Days” takes us back 45 years, “There is no reason why it couldn’t be set now as politicians use refugees as political weapons and as police continue to brutalize Black and brown people,” said Wineman. “Nothing about this play feels like ancient history.”
(Carlton Gillespie for Biscayne Times)
Mark and Dewana McDuffie taking a first look at the memorial dedicated to their father, Arthur Lee McDuffie.
While history continues to repeat itself, some things have changed. The same year that Floyd died, long before police convictions were handed down, the Minneapolis City Council voted to rename a stretch of Chicago Avenue George Perry Floyd Jr. Place. It took until February of this year for a historical marker to be unveiled on the corner of NW 38th Street and North Miami Avenue in recognition of what happened to McDuffie. Prior efforts fell on deaf ears. Griffin was at the street-naming ceremony to bear witness, as were two of McDuffie’s adult children.
If we only had more journalists like Buchanan to bring police cover-ups to light, enough writers to dramatize their stories beyond the pages of newspaper print, and enough courageous theater companies willing to commission and stage original material. Not all are destined to be a hit, but this one will be a winner beyond Miami’s boundaries.
If You Go
“Dangerous Days” runs April 4-28 at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Rd. in Miami Beach. Tickets range from $45.50-$76.50 for Thursday through Sunday showtimes and are available on MiamiNewDrama.org or by calling the box office at 305.674.1040.