BRAIDED LIVES
Director Summer L. Williams brings a uplifting and inspiring production of up-and-coming playwright Jocelyn Bioh’s Tony-nominated Jaja’s African Hair Braiding to the SpeakEasy Stage. An ensemble cast of ten portrays seventeen roles, with the five women who work in the hair braiding salon at the center of the action.
Dru Sky Berrian, MarHadoo Effeh, Kwezi Shongwe, and Crystin Gilmore
Kwezi Shongwe and Crystin Gilmore
While Jaja (MaConnia Chesser) is much talked about through the 95-minute, intermission-free play, she doesn’t appear until quite close to the end of the show. What happens to her, however, very much affects those who work in her salon, including Dru Sky Berrian as Marie, Jaja’s smart and energetic daughter; Crystin Gilmore as the veteran but aging Bea; Kwezi Shongwe as the music-loving, eager-to-dance Aminata; Marhadoo Effeh as the newest braider, a single mom eager to bring her young daughter to live with her in the U.S.; and finally Catia as the irrepressible and rising star Ndidi.
Catia and Yasmeen Duncan
Joshua Olumide, Yasmeen Duncan, and Catia
MarHadoo Effeh and Hampton Richards
These five women hail from Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria. They trade stories, triumphs, and gossip. They compete for customers and advise one another on marriage and romance. They talk about Jaja, who is supposed to be getting married on this particular day, and from their talk, we learn that Jaja’s impending marriage is, well—complicated.
Customers arrive, some new, some familiar, and much of the humor of the play comes from the customers and their endless demands as well as the eye-rolling and grimaces the hairdressers exchange with one another behind the customer’s backs. As the day progresses, different men (Joshua Olumide) pop in, selling socks and jewelry and offering news. The hairdressers set to work braiding, and through deft use of various wigs (Nadja Vanterpool) create the illusion of completing a process that normally takes hours. The braiders discuss the toll the work takes on their hands and fingers; customers take breaks from the work of patiently sitting.
Ashley Aldarondo, Dru Sky Berrian, and MarHadoo Effeh
Sky Berrian and MaConnia Chesser
The costumes in this production (Danielle Domingue Sumi) are an absolute delight, combining brightly colored African textiles with typical U.S. streetwear, while expressing the distinctive personalities of each character. Janie E. Howland’s scenic design captures the Harlem location of Jaja’s, down to the corrugated steel shutters that cover the salon when it’s closed.
Part of what this play does so well is to dramatize the work of braiding as well as the sense of community created in the salon. The women have their jealousies and conflicts, and yet they are very much a community, a fact that is made evident by the events of the gut-wrenching conclusion. They convey the concept of “Black Joy,” seizing opportunities to express themselves in dance, laughter, and celebration. This immigrant community is humanized and particularized—each woman has a different origin and different circumstances—and yet all are clearly contributing, not just economically but also through their creative spirit and energy. It’s the vibrancy and humor of these women that make the shocking conclusion all the more disturbing, and yet we come away knowing that it is this very same vibrant spirit that will allow these women to survive, in one way or another. As Bea says, near the end of the play, “It’s all going to be okay,” and when Marie counters, “But what if it’s not?” Bea replies, “Then it’s not. And after that, it will be okay.”
The cast
MaConnia Chesser (center) and the cast
photos courtesy of Nile Scott Studios
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
SpeakEasy Stage Company
Roberts Studio Theatre, Stanford Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston
95 minutes, no intermission
Wed & Thurs at 7; Fri at 7:30; Sat at 2 & 7:30; Sun at 3; Thurs at 2 (May 29)
ends on May 31, 2025
for tickets ($25-$85), call 617.933.8600 or visit SpeakEasyStage
for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston
