Sunday, 11 November 2007 10:23 pm
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deckardcanineOn Friday, I ushered Tim Acito's The Women of Brewster Place, a musical based on the Gloria Naylor book of the same title. True to the Arena Stage way of reaching out to the different audiences of Washington, the cast consists of ten Black actresses. They interact with invisible but often audible children (it's neither easy nor desirable to get real toddlers to follow stage directions), and altho the audience laughed at the invisibility at first, we really do get the sense of little ones running around. The women also occasionally face the audience to talk to men, represented by tall, silent shadows on the walls. Sound creepy? It's fitting for a troublesome ex-boyfriend or a gang leader.
Oh, I almost forgot to describe the situation. The year is 1975, and Brewster Place is a seedy ghetto hidden from the White district by a high wall. It's bad enough that mothers tend not to let their children leave the apartment for any reason. If you hope to make anything better, it probably means you're a newcomer. Naturally, a few newcomers show up in the beginning. But they aren't the center of attention. There are plenty of well-developed characters. I failed to keep track of which actresses played multiple roles, but they all excelled in each.
When I entered early, the set looked dull. Aside from the ghetto wall in the background, there were three thick, patternless walls with slanted tops, and no furniture at the moment. But this wasn't about to look like a Beckett play. The projector did an amazing job of changing the scenes (in addition to providing the aforementioned shadows), and the walls moved into different positions with the grace of a Broadway set. Steps would rise from a point on the floor, once to stand in for the backseat of a limo.
That limo, BTW, gives a ride to notorious prostitute Etta Mae, arguably the funniest character. My folks like her the best, but my personal favorite is her fair-weather friend and foil, aged churchgoer Mattie. I'm glad the actress is going to star in the next Arena production as well. No one else handles both comedy and tragedy as well as she does. And let me tell you, there's plenty of both in this story. Be prepared for a couple of sad deaths in addition to belly laughs.
There is more singing than speech in this musical. It's not at the level of Evita, but it has 13 songs in each of the two acts, and most of them are not what I'd call short -- which is fine by me. While I'm having trouble retaining any of the tunes, I recall them never being worse than good.
I count this as another flawless victory for Arena Stage.
Oh, I almost forgot to describe the situation. The year is 1975, and Brewster Place is a seedy ghetto hidden from the White district by a high wall. It's bad enough that mothers tend not to let their children leave the apartment for any reason. If you hope to make anything better, it probably means you're a newcomer. Naturally, a few newcomers show up in the beginning. But they aren't the center of attention. There are plenty of well-developed characters. I failed to keep track of which actresses played multiple roles, but they all excelled in each.
When I entered early, the set looked dull. Aside from the ghetto wall in the background, there were three thick, patternless walls with slanted tops, and no furniture at the moment. But this wasn't about to look like a Beckett play. The projector did an amazing job of changing the scenes (in addition to providing the aforementioned shadows), and the walls moved into different positions with the grace of a Broadway set. Steps would rise from a point on the floor, once to stand in for the backseat of a limo.
That limo, BTW, gives a ride to notorious prostitute Etta Mae, arguably the funniest character. My folks like her the best, but my personal favorite is her fair-weather friend and foil, aged churchgoer Mattie. I'm glad the actress is going to star in the next Arena production as well. No one else handles both comedy and tragedy as well as she does. And let me tell you, there's plenty of both in this story. Be prepared for a couple of sad deaths in addition to belly laughs.
There is more singing than speech in this musical. It's not at the level of Evita, but it has 13 songs in each of the two acts, and most of them are not what I'd call short -- which is fine by me. While I'm having trouble retaining any of the tunes, I recall them never being worse than good.
I count this as another flawless victory for Arena Stage.