at City Hall, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and 9.15 p.m.

Throughout theatrical history, satire has been a potent force in exposing the follies of human nature.

The Colored Museum is no exception: A series of eleven "exhibits'' takes the audience on a journey where humourously cynical barbs reveal what it can be like to be black in white America.

Author George C. Wolfe, whose Jelly's Last Jam is currently playing to sold-out houses on Broadway, has taken some outrageously stereotyped characters, investing them with a biting wit that also spews out some epigramatic verbal jewels.

The script alone makes this a theatrical event not to be missed and the cast -- under the inspired direction of Patricia Pogson -- brings the "exhibits'' brilliantly to life.

There are moments in this play that are quite magical -- those moments which, once in a while, remind us what theatre is all about. There can be no doubt by now that Patricia Pogson has a supreme gift for bringing out the innate talents of her actors. She has a rare ability to guide her performers to the very core of the roles they are portraying. Consequently, they not only "speak the speech'' but are also able to define the nuances of character through gesture and body language. The results are impressive.

The mood is sparklingly set when Miss Pat (Laurel Burns) bids her passengers to "Git on Board'' the Celebrity Slaveship, en route for the lovely, hot cotton-fields of Savannah. Drums will not be allowed on board, she declares, as she proceeds to demonstrate how to fasten the shackles which "must be worn at all times''.

We are reminded that it is from these ominous beginnings that the complex culture of black America has evolved and author Wolfe misses not a beat, nor a jab as he highlights the peaks, but more often, the valleys of that journey.

That he does so within the framework of broad comedy produces an evening of sketches packed with wry humour.

The stereotypes follow in quick succession. They range from the world of entertainment (one of the first niches of "respectability'' attained by American blacks) in Last Mama on the Couch Play to LaLa's Opening. Last Mama is a play within a play, with Robert Wilkinson leading a strong cast of histrionic contenders for a drama award.

Shernette Peniston takes on the role of LaLa in a song-sprinkled monologue a la Josephine Baker. That LaLa hides her particular skeleton in the closet beneath a French accent and a career overseas is a theme that is also examined in Symbiosis.

"I have no history, I have no past,'' proclaims Danjou Anderson as he proceeds to throw his blues and Motown music into the trash before a dismayed Robert Wilkinson. In order to survive in the white world, intones Anderson, he can "only be black on weekends''. Fine performances from these two in this sketch.

Also on a distinctly sombre note is Soldier with a Secret, which brings another beautifully crafted performance from Danjou Anderson. Close to death in Vietnam, the soldier has a prophetic vision of his black comrades' future lives, dominated by drugs and violence. The only remedy to their pain may, indeed, he concludes, be death.

Kevin Bean takes the solo spot as the outrageously camp Miss Roj, who hides a grimly philosophical brand of dignity behind the posturing smiles and the purple frills of his "working'' gear. After a nervous start, Bean gave an increasingly audacious account of one who, from the "bottomless pit'' is well placed to observe what he describes as the life habits of a decaying race.

Photo Session takes a swipe at the plastic smiles of Ebony magazine, and, in the same vein, Hair Piece produces some of the best, off-the-wall comedy of the night as two talking wigs vie for the honour of adorning their owner's head. There are marvellously fluent performances from Laurel Burns and Ginea Edwards as the wigs.

It is Ginea Edwards who is, without a doubt, the star of this show. With a smile that would light up Broadway, her two solo sequences would do credit to that establishment.

Both of her pieces are biting caricatures, delivered with smiling, deadly accuracy. In Cookin' with Aunt Ethel, she struts about, swathed in rolls of fat, a turban on her head and eyes a-rollin'. The other stereotype, and also based on images of the early film era, is her performance in Permutations.

This seems to be a near-perfect re-creation of Scarlett O'Hara's simple-minded little slave girl.

Colored Museum provides an evening that is thought-provoking as well as highly entertaining. It's a good combination.

As a setting for what Patricia Pogson calls "informal theatre'', the National Gallery seems cold. This is probably partly due to the lack of sympathetic lighting (or indeed, any lighting) and the fact that on the first night, the audience was woefully sparse. Bookings apparently improved for the rest of the week.

There will be two performances nightly at 7 and 9.15 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday. It should be noted that Colored Museum is not suitable for children.

Everyone else, though, should appreciate its uncompromising humour.

PATRICIA CALNAN.