Inspired by playwright Dahlak Brathwaite’s real-life connection to the police officer involved in the wrongful killing of Stephon Clark, the work critiques how justice is commodified, weaving together autobiography, metadrama, and alternative history.

COMMERCIAL follows Marquise Johnson, a stand-in for the playwright, as he transforms his complicated connection to Clark’s murder into a performance piece; a play within the play. What begins as an earnest, poetic meditation on this tragedy soon becomes warped as media coverage fades and the movement for Black Lives loses momentum. Marquise, desperate to sustain public attention, manufactures an escalating series of sensationalized events, blurring the line between his reality and his art —only to find himself interrupted by commercial breaks.