The Artistic Home Stages a Classic Play by Alice Childress
You too may find the hyper-realistic picture of Julia and Walter’s relationship by famed actress and playwright Alice Childress’ pen an emotional wallop. We may have read of the marriages across race lines that happened here or there, but it’s likely few of us –even those of us in modern cross-racial relationships—have imagined these couplings so vividly before. We peek into the oasis of their love nest and for many of us readily recognize it as the magic of domestic bliss, with or without wedding band. Here are statistical anomaly relationships rendered everyday.
This peek into their bedroom is a first attention getter in what starts off as a slow, slow moving script, leaving you totally unprepared for the first explosion of race relations towards the end of the first act. It’s so powerful that you might think the play is ending at this scene’s conclusion, instead of continuing after intermission to double down on its expose of racism.
The power of this tale is in no small part in the telling and how revelations of underlying emotions simply stun. Concern for spoilers demands that more details in how the story unfolds not be shared here. Note that the subtitle “..a Love/Hate Story in Black & White” tells you what you are in for.
Do know that acting doesn’t get better than this—every cast member. (Susan Anderson, Reid Coker, Laura Coleman, Raina Lynn, Lisa McConnell, Donna McGough, Myesha-Tiara, Kevin Patterson, and Scott Westerman.) Please note a special shout out to the two amazingly talented young actresses—Maya Hooks (10) and Madison Murphy (9)—whose skipping, hopscotch and ever-so-natural stage presence go farther than the set to define time and place. One suspects that Director Cecilie Keenan didn’t need to do much other than unleash all of these acting talents.
