over the last week i was privileged to see two long form theater events happening off and off-off broadway. it was interesting to have just seen these and then read a giant discussion about why the neil simon revivals flopped so badly on broadway and what audiences expect for their money in the theater (a big star . . . and big for broadway usually means someone who had a sitcom about 10+ years ago. let’s bring jackee to broadway…in mame!). however, away from broadway are two new works that are bold, imaginative, ambitious, moving and need no former sitcom stars.
i had missed the brothers size at the public when it opened there in 2007. after seeing tarell alvin mccraney’s followup wig out! at the vineyard, i felt sorry i had missed out on the earlier play. i was happy to see the public bring it back along with two other plays that make up a trilogy. the three plays loosely follow a group of related characters named after orishas of the yoruba religion (something i feel very close to since i maintain yoruba is the national religion of cuba where it is known as santeria). mccraney doesn’t adhere to the relationships between the orishas that i am familiar with–his version of oshun isn’t ogun’s beloved, for example … and elegba and eleggua are two different characters. the first part in the red and brown water felt like a retelling of lorca’s yerma with oya searching for some meaning inside her relationships and community after the death of her mother and her inability to bear a child. the brothers size is about the relationship between ogun and ochoosi size, two very different brothers whose relationship is about to sever. the final play marcus or the secret of sweet is about elegba’s gay son marcus and his prophetic dreams of katrina striking the bayou. mccraney plays with camp, mythology, brechtian alienation effects (the characters often announce their stage directions before performing them), dance and singing. the borrowed elements sometimes felt overwhelming and somethings surprising–ogun and ochoosi’s lovely duet on “try a little tenderness” was a great example and a lot of the slapstick teethkissing shenanigans in marcus resulted in some wonderfully kinetic fireworks between the actors that would suddenly shift to poignancy with little effort. i found in the red and brown water a bit more challenging as oya’s story felt a little private to me, but the final moment was incredibly powerful. in a sense, oya gives birth to the succession of severed relations that follow: between ogun and ochoosi; between ochoosi and elegba; between elegba and marcus; between marcus and oba . . . these characters are constantly searching for a mirror, an affirmation of self within another person. they are haunted by dreams that often remain puzzles to them. in marcus, the eymology of the euphemism “sweet” (for “gay”) is explained. during the slave trade, if two male slaves were found having sex, they were whipped and sugar was poured in their wounds, which would get sticky in the heat and attract flies. these characters have all been lacerated by their desires and their wounds prevented from closing. yet, as marcus discovers his “sweet” is also his sight . . . and it may not provide him with answers for himself, but he creates connections for others–particularly for ogun.
the lily’s revenge is an experience i am not sure i can be incredibly articulate about as i am still reeling from it. it is a five hour event. on one hand it is the story of a lily who strives to become a man and marry the bride and defeat the great longing, deity of nostalgia. on the other hand it is about how we experience performance–the play is enormous, there are rules and structured activities and audience participation during the shows and intermissions, each act takes place in a reconfigured playing space and utilizes a combination of playing styles (comedy, verse, dance theater, video and a slapstick chaos that ends the evening). for me it was impossible not to find myself interfacing with the material in very personal ways. as i mentioned two posts down, i read these emily dickenson poems in an offstage area called “the context corner” where taylor shares his source materials. i opened this book at random at each intermission and the next act had everything to do with the poem i had just read. i responded to the struggle between nostalgia and being in the here and now. the lily’s desire to be a man and defeat the great longing seemed to be at odds with each other and along the way he gains wisdom but loses his glittery lily self. i was very moved by the small video where a white rose longs to be “the perfect specimen” and is deformed as a result. i wondered about the great longing’s 2nd curtain being made up of the red napkins audience members were asked to write down things they longed for . . . it seemed to me longing was a trap that divorced one from real experience and joy and beauty. the bride and groom’s longing for a perfect wedding had nothing to do with love and everything to do with their asserting their desire to live up to some proscribed gender role they felt they needed to live up to (and there was a meta narrative running parallel to this about traditional theater models being the death of the medium itself). by the end i was an emotional, teary, sweaty and giddy mess. all i wanted to was make art and make out.
i am not doing these two works justice in this blog post. i suspect these will be works that i will have to think about for a long time and probably continue to learn about them as i speak to others who’ve seen them, read the reviews, read the texts (when published). these plays made me think about what it means to be a creative person and what it means to be a part of this world with creativity. sometimes when i long to be “the perfect specimen,” i feel i am longing for something that doesn’t exist and i am not seeing, really seeing what is inside of me and around me. both tarell mccraney and taylor mac have presented a vision of the world that is their own–idiosyncratic, contradictory, paradoxical, magical, poetic and incredibly generous. i felt they reached out to me and every audience member in the room and created a sense of community.
which is ultimately why we go to the theater right? oh, and the hope that someone somewhere does cast jackee in mame.
may you watch over this play and ensure it a safe and positive journey towards production.
