Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Police Brutality, Corruption, and Systemic Racism
Healing, Progress, and Collective Consciousness
Justice, Perspective, and Ambiguity
Individuals vs. Institutions
Action vs. Symbolic Gesture
Summary
Analysis
Smith interviews Stanley K. Sheinbaum in his Brentwood home. Sheinbaum recalls how he heard about the verdict on the radio as he was driving into downtown LA. He speaks of a “mini-experience” he had that afternoon that enabled him to predict the chaos that would envelop LA after the verdicts were announced. As he was driving down the Santa Monica Freeway, he saw an African American man and an African American woman driving a newer model BMW. The window was down, and he saw that the woman had a hammer in her hand.
Stanley K. Sheinbaum makes a second appearance—he and Maxine Waters are the only subjects to appear in more than one scene. The surreal “mini-experience” he recalls in his testimony creates suspense and an ominous atmosphere to usher in Act Three: War Zone. One remarkable aspect of the play is how Smith builds suspense and tension like this, despite depriving the audience of conventional plot. The image of the BMW—a luxury vehicle—clashes with the image of a woman holding a hammer. Sheinbaum seems to interpret these disjointed images as signs of the chaos and disarray that would soon envelop the city.
Themes
When Sheinbaum returned to the garage of the police department around 6:30, he ran into Daryl Gates, who was on his way out to attend a fundraiser to campaign against Prop. F, a measure that sought to limit a police chief’s term to five years and which allowed for only one term renewal. The old charter didn’t include term limits.
As police chief, Gates would have had incentive to attend a fundraiser to defeat a measure that would negatively affect his career. Symbolically, his decision to leave his post to attend the Prop F fundraiser reflects Gates’s prioritization of politics and ego over public service.
Themes
Sheinbaum recalls then entering the police department and hearing screams from down the hall. “They’re coming in!” one woman screamed. He remembers seeing a rock crash through the paned glass walls at the front of the police department.
With the conclusion of Sheinbaum’s account, the play shifts focus from retrospective analyses of the riots to the riots themselves. The rock crashing through here foreshadows the intense violence to come.
Themes
