The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington is in the reinterpretation business.

On its surface, James Ijames’s play — The Wilma’s recent revival of which is now streaming — reinterprets Martha Washington’s life from the perspectives of her enslaved, told by reinterpreting styles of anachronistic forms of popular entertainment, culminating in the curtain call reinterpreting the common conception of one of the 21st century’s sociopolitical anthems:

Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”.

Its chorus’ repeated refrain of “We gon’ be alright” is usually treated as preaching optimism (see: Mexodus’ bows). But Kendrick’s “gon’ be” becomes larded with a suggestion of futile hope when heard soon after Martha Washington’s observation that racial equality will always feel like it’s on the way, without ever being imminent.

Through this lens, the lyric’s message seems to shift from affirming the “alright” to emphasizing the “gon’ be.”

Every generation rallies around “gon’ be,” but if that “gon’ be” remains a “gon’ be” in perpetuity…