Displaying items by tag: Donovan Session

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.