There are a few plays that focus on the love between two brothers. There are even fewer that will allow you to understand the brother’s fears, desires, and dreams throughout their heartfelt journey together. A story of two brothers who not only try to find peace between each other but peace within the gritty environment they inherited. The second installment of acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCarney’s Brother/Sisters trilogy, The Brothers Size, returns to the Steppenwolf theatre for the first time since its celebrated Chicago 2010 premiere.
The Brothers Size is the story of Oshoosi Size and his return home from prison. He lives with his tough older brother, Ogun Size, who runs an auto shop by himself. Ogun pushes Oshoosi to find work and to start rebuilding his life, but Oshoosi has bigger dreams than his older sibling and fantasizes himself in the company of a woman or driving around without a care in the world with his best friend, Elegba. The brother’s opposing views on life cause them to clash. Challenging them to find a way to understand one another. Elegba jumps in and out of Ogun and Oshoosi's life as a devoted friend who served time alongside Oshoosi. Oshoosi embraces Elegba as not only a friend but sometimes a lover, but Ogun can’t help but see Elegba as a threat.
Director Monty Cole brings this play to life with a dark, mulch covered stage that evokes the feeling of being inside an industrial environment where men work under a full moon with beads of sweat dripping off their fingertips; dreaming of better days. The stage is a reflection of the hard labor Ogun pushes upon himself to maintain. A life Oshoosi shuns away from, seeking a paradise his brother can never understand. After Oshoosi and Elegba find himself in trouble with the law again, Ogun is left with a decision that could change not only his brother’s life but his own.
McCraney's In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue was the basis for the Oscar-winning film Moonlight directed by Barry Jenkins, for which McCraney and Jenkins won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The middle piece of his acclaimed triptych is another brilliant piece from McCraney’s catalog. The Brothers Size is written with a raw and poetic language, enriched with West African Yoruba mythology. Not only are the characters borrowed from its tales, but the play uses the mythology as a device to drive the story. In the first scene, each character enters the stage to the beat of a drum. They’re chanting and stomping the stage barefooted, side by side, connecting to their ancestors who walked around as beautiful, free men. An undeniable parallel as each character throughout the play struggles to find freedom within themselves.
In his Steppenwolf debut, Patrick Agada (Oshoosi Size) brings an electrifying energy to the stage that has to be pointed out. Manny Buckley (Ogun Size) and Rashaad Hall (Elegeba) give passionate performances that are not overshadowed by Agada’s nor superior. They weave together into a sweet harmony similar to a jazz ensemble that’s been playing together for years. When they share the stage, their performances melt together into a stunning work of art, and when its time to stand out on their own they do so in a way that seems effortless.
McCarney quoted: "The prison industrial complex as we know it...destroys families—and changes lives forever." The Brothers Size gives insight into the reality of a loved one trapped in a system that was never designed for him/her to succeed. It unveils the depth of brotherly love and how the grief caused by this complex is not a burden solely rested on those who’ve been imprisoned but shared with the loved ones they left behind.
Through October 19, 2019 at Steppenwolf Theatre.
