Off-Broadway Review: THE BLOOD QUILT (Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center)

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by Tony Frankel on November 26, 2024

in Theater-New York

A QUILT BLANKETED BY PREDICTABLE STITCHING

Quilts always intrigued me; for millennia, women took scraps of fabric from discarded items and made quilts to be used for warmth or decorative purposes. Most of us had one made by a Grandma or a Great Aunt: they stored the patches of material until they had enough to finish their project, and it took time and patience from ideation to completion, a visual journey. Depending on the ethnicity, the times, or just the family, they developed particular techniques and made it into an art.

The Cast of The Blood Quilt

In The Blood Quilt by Katori Hall (The Mountaintop, The Hot Wing King: 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), the blanket is the plot device to unravel the problems of four very different sisters who reunite to create a quilt in honor of their recently deceased mother. They grew up in the same place but have dissimilar experiences and feelings for the matriarch so, while sewing and reading her will, family disputes commence, resentments run wild, wounds reopen, and the truth finally comes out.

Mirirai and Adrienne C. Moore
Susan Kelechi Watson, Crystal Dickinson, Lauren E. Banks, Adrienne C. Moore

The first thing that struck me when I entered The Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater was the elegant poetry of Adam Rigg’s scenery. The sisters gather at their childhood island home off the coast of Georgia, already a whimsical location. The large widows are draped with Spanish moss, and Rigg ensures that we feel the power of the water, wrapped all around the stage, the warmth of a lived house, and the significance of gorgeous quilts spread on couches and hanging on balcony railings as a colorful reminder of family tales. Lighting by Jiyoun Chang and projections by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew help the illusion by bathing us in different shades of blue, assisted by Palmer Hefferan‘s sounds of waves and wild wind.

Lauren E. Banks, Susan Kelechi Watson, Adrienne C. Moore

Clementine (Crystal Dickinson) is the oldest sister who is “sweet and sour like her namesake” — guardian of family traditions. She loved her Mama, and doesn’t want any negativity in the house. Gio (Adrienne C. Moore) is a funny, bellowing police officer in the middle of a divorce who stayed close to home like Clementine. She is the exact opposite of fashionable Amber (Lauren E. Banks), the youngest sister, who is a wealthy, ambitious Hollywood entertainment lawyer and was Mama’s favorite. Cassan (Susan Kelechi Watson), a nurse, is the matter-of-fact third sister who brought along her daughter Zambia (Mirirai), an adorable teenager fighting to develop a sense of identity. Montana Levi Blanco‘s costumes help to identify each character as an archetype.

Crystal Dickinson, Lauren E. Banks
The Cast

Under Lileana Blain-Cruz‘s direction, all five actresses are passionate and completely inhabit their roles: Dickinson’s Clementine is the ideal God=fearing woman, modest, lovely, conveniently blind to the truth; Moore’s dazzlingly loud acting has us feel Gio’s wound even before she reveals it; Watson, who has a very structured role, allows us to see glimpses of Cassan’s fun side to understand how she became so somber; Banks intrigues us with her “imperfect-perfection”; and Mirari is exceptional as the confused, curious teenager. But Hall’s story seems more suitable for television close-ups with its well-crafted realistic dialogue, numerous shocking revelations, and hints at magic. It feels a bit rhetorical and at times predictable (the storm anticipating the final blow up, the imperfection in perfect Amber, etc.).

Adrienne C. Moore, Crystal Dickinson, Susan Kelechi Watson

Stitching family stories into one quilt is a great idea but it is also a treacherous terrain where tension and disagreements between siblings can become just a series of explosive disclosures — one nullifies the other, flattening the climax. The Blood Quilt is a pleasurable play that neither moved me (and considering the compelling subject, it should have) nor left me with any meaningful thought. It’s a vague patchwork of well-acted scenes and clever lines that, stitched together, just doesn’t add up to a theatrical quilt.

photos by Julieta Cervantes

The Blood Quilt
Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in Lincoln Center Theater, 150 West 65th St
ends on December 29, 2024
for tickets, visit LCT

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