Displaying items by tag: Donovan Session

“What happens if we never loosen our grip?”

Director Mikael Burke ends his director’s note with the question above. He muses on the responsibilities of parents, and how all we want is to keep our children safe. We hold them close to keep them from harm, but ultimately, what does that do? Does it keep them safe? Or if we hold them too close, does the choice send them in the opposite direction – running towards any sense of freedom that they can find?

However, you might find that Burke’s question sheds light on a little more than just the role of parents in the play. What happens if we never loosen our grip on our children, but also our fears? Our insecurities? Our unhappiness, or even the dreams we once held so close? You might find that Burke’s question leads to another – If we never loosen our grip, how are we ever meant to grow and find something bigger?

Written by Terry Guest, Oak takes place in the south where we meet three young black people – Pickle (Jazzy Rush), Suga (Stephanie Mattos), and Big Man (Donovan Session). There is a town-wide curfew of 7pm during snatching season – the time of year where no child is safe. Every parent tightens their hold a bit more – including Peaches (Brianna Buckley), a single mother who just wants to know that her kids will be home when she gets back from her late-night job. Is it a mysterious Creek Monster that is to blame? Or is there something even darker afoot? All we know is that children are going missing, and no one really knows where to turn.

Helmed by Burke, the creative team brings this play to haunting life with what can only be described as superb talent. Scenic Designer Sydney Lynne completely transforms the stage – with a swamp filled with dead trees that immediately plants the audience in this southern gothic mystery. Lighting Designer Eric Watkins certainly does not hold back – taking full advantage of darkness and shadows that heighten the spooky feel. Especially when combined with Original Music and Sound Designer Ethan Korvne’s work, you might find it tough not to completely let yourself fall into the ghost story unfolding before you. There were quite a few screams at this particular performance, and I know I personally felt the tension rising in my own body as the characters dug deeper in the mysteries surrounding them.

Now, what is it that is so frightening? The scenery certainly does the work to invite the audience into the story. The ensemble as a whole is quite strong – particularly Rush and Session. The brother/sister relationship they build on stage is incredibly relatable. No one quite gets under your skin like a sibling, but at the same time, no one quite has your back like one either. As we see the two struggle to be honest with each other about how much they might need each other, you might find yourself leaning in – wishing you could help spell it out for them – especially if you yourself are an older sibling. Seeing the stakes and what this family has to lose certainly adds to the fear.

However, more than any of that, Guest writes a story that is unfortunately quite relevant. We see the disappearances of children happen daily. We also see that there are differences in how these disappearances are explored based on who is taken and where they happen to reside. Perhaps Guest’s story is so terrifying because this happens to be the truth in which we live, and we have yet to find a solution.

Oak is the perfect play for a Chicago that is slowly moving into the fall season. As we inch closer to Halloween, maybe we all need a spooky little wakeup call?

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Oak runs through November 9 at Raven Theatre. For tickets and information, see the Raven Theatre website.

*This review is also shared on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/!  

Black and Irish Twitter had a field day upon the death of Her Highness Queen Elizabeth II. No tears were shed other than tears of laughter and joy at the demise of a colonizer. Telling Black twitter to be respectful of the death of the woman who inherited the legacy of an empire that contributed to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, or Irish twitter to mourn the woman whose legacy includes Black Sunday is truly an eye rolling, laugh inducting matter…sorry Chris. It is ironic “The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington”, lambasting the “Mother of Our Country”, opened the same weekend as the death of the Queen of the Commonwealth.

I learned so much from seeing this play. Much of James Ijames play is based on historical fact. Martha Dandridge Custis was a widow with two children and enslaved people when she married George Washington. She had an illegitimate half-sister, Ann, born into slavery, thanks to her father. Ann had a son named William. William is both nephew and grandson to Martha since it is believed Martha’s son, John Custis is Williams’s father. George Washington did instruct his wife to release his enslaved people upon his death.  Martha feared her life was in jeopardy and expressed it to Abigail Adams. James Ijames did his research writing this exceptional play. The writing is relevant, thought-provoking, and extremely entertaining.

The play opens Christmas eve night. An enslaved woman, Ann Dandridge is attending to a dying Martha Washington. Just outside and within ear shot are Miz Washington’s enslaved chattel waiting for the glorious moment of her death. They are aware of the clause in her late husbands will freeing them of servitude upon her death, and they can hardly contain themselves.  Miz Washington falls into a deep sleep and finds herself in a fever dream where she will have to account for the people she has enslaved.

Then the fun begins……

Not every director or actor could have pulled off this spectacle. And believe me, it was a spectacle. There was nothing small or tentative about this production. It was big, it was bold, it was Black and Beautiful. Director Whitney White used every fiber of all her talented actors to wonderful results. The ensemble consists of Sydney Charles as Priscilla, Celeste M. Cooper as Doll, Donovan Session as Sucky-Boy, Carl Clemons-Hopkins as Davy, Victor Musoni as William, Nikki Crawford as Ann Dandridge, and Cindy Gold as Martha Washington. All the ensemble members, except Cindy Gold, play a host of other characters.

Clint Ramos’ set design is interesting, dark, and foreboding at times, at other times a circus

Izumi Inaba’s costumes showed a vivid imagination, among the best I’ve seen. There are several scene and costume changes and for the life of me, I’m not sure how they were done so quick and effortlessly.

Ijames doesn’t romanticize slavery as I’ve seen in other plays. There is nothing nice about slavery. Ijames has made his enslaved people the antagonist to an American way of life, putting them at odds with those who romanticize this country.

I got into a row with someone on twitter about my indifference to the Queen’s death. He reminded me the British Empire abolished slavery decades before the United States. I reminded him the British Empire used slave labor to harvest sugarcane, they realized enslaved people with machetes aren’t good for business.

This production is highly recommended.

THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON runs through October 9, 2022 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 North Halsted. Tickets are $20-$96.

Everybody dies. In fact, Somebody will die very soon. That is not only reality, but also the premise of Everybody, a contemporary take on the Medieval morality play, Everyman. Each night, Somebody will be chosen randomly from the cast to go on the final journey. According to the press materials, this means there are 120 permutations of the cast list, chosen by lottery from a group of actors of different genders, ages and races. For this to happen, the actors playing Somebody have learned all of the lines. In Everyman, first published in 1508, a man is called to account for his life by Death, on orders from God, though he is allowed to bring a companion on the journey to his reckoning. Everyman asks a number of allegorical characters to accompany him, but they all balk, except Good Deeds, which is the only thing that goes with him to the grave. But this is not that play, as the extremely officious and informative Usher tells us. Brown Paper Box Co.’s regional premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Everybody is an engaging, often clever, reflection on what it means to live, and a reminder that Death will come for us all and now is a good time to think about how we are living our lives.

Despite the Usher’s assurance that we are not watching Everyman, Jacobs-Jenkin’s play adheres pretty closely to the source material in structure, except that Good Deeds are nowhere to be found (though Evil is there to the end), which makes the moral a bit less comforting. The reason may lie in the Buddhist origins of the source material, which this reviewer was unaware of until the Usher mentioned it. The play begins, as the original, with “God’s” frustration at the disintegration of humanity. The quotations are added by the actors every time God is mentioned. Death in turn is frustrated at having to figure out what exactly God wants, though he does figure it out, explaining to Somebody that God demands that they go with him, never to return, and prepare an accounting of their life’s work. Somebody is rightfully flustered by this assignment, as so much of their life has slipped from memory and God and Death have not prepared them for this moment. All of this happens before the plot actually gets set in motion with the selection of roles via lottery. The actor chosen to portray Everybody must take the ominous journey to the grave and God’s reckoning, and, as one would expect, it is a grueling and painful journey. But, for the evening, it is somebody else’s journey, so the audience can just sit back and enjoy.

Erin Shea Brady does not shirk from the meta-theatricality of the script. We are in a theater, as we are often reminded, and roles can be cast randomly. This conceit requires absolute commitment from the cast, and they throw themselves into their shifting parts wholeheartedly. The set by Evan Frank offers hardly any place to hide at the outset, and even less at the end. Samantha Corn’s costumes reinforce the allegorical nature of the characters and allow the actors to slip into their different parts. Intimacy Designer Charlie Baker deserves mention for easing the actors into an uncomfortably vulnerable encounter with Love. Sound designer Blake Cordell reinforces the otherworldly proceedings and choreographer Mollyanne Nunn contributes a real danse macabre. Ultimately, because the setting is minimal, it’s all on the performers.

Chelsea David, as guide, catalyst and comforter (Usher/God/Understanding) does a remarkable job ushering both audience and actors, delivering God’s insecure fury at the mess of humanity, and finally as a compassionate Understanding releasing Everybody to their death. David nearly conquers the streams of words she is tasked with through sheer force of will; this is to say that in lesser hands, there may have been a lot more looking at watches in the opening. She also makes it all look effortless. Kenny the Bearded is perfect as the sometimes petulant, always bombastic, and strangely sympathetic Death. Nora Fox plays Time with the certainty of youth, and just the right amount of youthful ‘tude. As neglected Love, Tyler Anthony Smith balances wounded ego, cruelty and ultimately touching loyalty as he demands abnegation from Everybody in return for his presence. The rest of the cast will presumably take turns at the other roles in the play. On the night being reported here, Alys Dickerson made the journey from terrified disbelief to calm resignation feel as wrenching as Everybody’s slow realization of the hopelessness of her situation would. Donovan Session was hilariously fickle as Friendship in this age can be, running through reasons why Everybody might feel depressed, commenting on their many passing connections (how many times they must have liked each other on Facebook), and swearing to stay with her to Hell and back, back being the operative word. Cousin (Hal Cosentino) and Kinship (Francesca Sobrer) offered enough comfort to make their rejections all the more painful. As Stuff, Alex Madda relished her role in ruining another human. The actors returned at the end to play Understanding’s team of Strength, the Five Senses, Beauty and Everybody’s Mind. No need to mention that these attributes fade as Everybody enters the grave.

There are a lot of pointed observations in Everybody about the way humans find to avoid real connections and dodge responsibility for others and the world, but despite all of the cleverness, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins does not seem to have a firm handle on the point of the journey. Unless that is the point. Despite the shortcomings of the destination, Everybody’s journey does remind us to perhaps be a bit more conscious of our lives and the people that pass through them. Director Erin Shea Brady and her game team of actors and designers, led by the indefatigable Chelsea David, have created an immersive and thought-provoking Everyman for the internet age. Though the play sometimes wanders into the philosophical weeds, the sincerity of the company in trying to untangle the mysteries and meanings of this existential journey, and Everybody’s dawning consciousness, is worth at least one visit.

Everybody, presented by Brown Paper Box Co., runs through August 12 at the Buena at Pride Arts Center, 4147 N. Broadway, Chicago. For tickets and information visit www.BrownPaperBox.org and https://dime.io/events/EVERYBODY.