YOU MIGHT ENJOY THE ACTING,
BUT WILL YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?
It’s not easy to believe in magic watching Phylicia Rashad’s direction of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. While Rashad has a knack for the naturalistic style of theatre, evidenced in her astounding production of A Raisin in the Sun, she seems to have missed the mysticism and ethereal underpinnings necessary for August Wilson’s work to resonate. Even though the powerful cast still has the ability to elicit emotion and laughs from the viewer, some of the show’s main themes go overlooked by the direction, making this feel like an actors’ showcase more than a transcendent experience. Plus, the shoddy sound, confusing regional dialects, and incomprehensible mystical elements will leave some viewers baffled.
Wilson’s story investigates the post-Reconstruction lives of freed African-Americans traveling north with their guitars and Bibles trying to make a life for themselves. Wilson’s play is packed with character-driven humor, but there are spooky elements which don’t ring true in this production. Right at the top, John Iacovelli’s presentational kitchen set of an African-American boarding house in 1911 Pittsburgh has a quaint sitcom feel to it, but then, so does much of the acting. The opening scenes are cute and charming, introducing characters that come off as quirky and likeable, but not always rooted in authenticity.
The play is packed with themes of displacement, discrimination and hauntings (especially the ghost of slavery), but this revival lacks a spookiness and enchantment, especially in the characters of Bynum Walker (an amiable Glynn Turman), a “Conjure Man” who binds people together with black magic enchantment, and Herald Loomis (the dark and brooding John Douglas Thompson), an ex-slave who — with his daughter in tow — seeks out his long-lost wife. The act one closer, which involves a symbolic possession, has the capability of being frightening, but here lacks terror and eeriness. Don’t feel alone if you are bewildered, thinking, “Wait, what just happened? Did I miss something?” The discrepancy is not in Thompson’s performance, as his intensity was authoritative and electric, but there was a lack of ambiance, an ethereal presence that Wilson is known for. If the creative team had done more to create an air of spiritualism, the symbolism (bones across the water, dead pigeons) would have had a greater emotional impact.
It’s also difficult to ascertain character credulity when an astounding amount of dialogue gets lost every time characters turn their backs in this thrust theatre. Many of Rashad’s cast are no doubt classically trained, but also do a great amount of film work. While a mumble might come across fine on screen, the audience at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles will be forced to ask their neighbors to repeat many of the lines. One would think they had a hearing loss (you should have seen the line of people getting hearing-assisted devices at intermission) until Broadway belter Lillias White speaks. White, who plays proprietress Bertha Holly, displays projection of voice and character: She jiggles up a storm while spouting out tongue twisters and still her every word is comprehensible.
Otherworldly elements aside, some spectators might be won over by the emotional performances. Some of the best work is done by the women, perhaps because they are less complicated than the roles of the men and have less stage time, especially January Lavoy and Erica Tazel. Lavoy has a bittersweet vulnerability as Mattie Campbell, a “Girl Next Door” who is searching for love, and Tazel is heart-wrenching as Loomis’ long-gone wife, Martha Pentecost. There may be a cutesiness to the scenes with youngsters Nathaniel James Potvin (as next-door neighbor Reuben) and Skye Barrett (as Loomis’ daughter), but Barrett shows a depth of emotion later on which belies her youth.
photos by Craig Schwartz
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Center Theatre Group
Mark Taper Forum
ends on June 9, 2013
for tickets, call 213.628.2772 or visit CTG
