Definition Theatre Company presents NO CHILD Review: Brilliant Acting Tells a Heartbreaking and Relevant Story

The lights go out at the top of the play, and all patrons slowly quiet down. Just when all is silent, a voice booms from the back of the house, and Janitor (debrah neal, with spot-on comedic timing) sets the scene. We are at Malcom X High School, where a teaching artist is going to try and lead a group of students towards a final production. Janitor is full of humor, but also a fair bit of warning – the events that will unfold are not all easy to watch. Just when Janitor is about to sit down (in the house with the audience) and let the play begin, she leaves off with one last request that not only suits her character wonderfully, but also acts as the perfect piece of advice for how to absorb No Child:

“Hush, cause you might just learn a little something.”

Definition Theatre presents No Child

Written by Nilaja Sun and directed by Chika Ike, this play is based on true stories from Sun’s experience as a teaching artist in the New York City Public Schools for over 19 years. No Child follows Ms. Sun (Adia Alli), a teaching artist who is about to enter a six-week long residency at Malcom X High School, where she is going to help the students mount a production of Our Country is Good. However, the first day she meets her students, she enters an absolute nightmare to any educator – the students are dancing on the desks, they have no interest in the material, and the timid classroom teacher, Ms. Tam (hilariously portrayed by Kirsten Chan), has zero control over the classroom.

What follows is a highly realistic and heartbreaking story about the highs and lows of public school education. No Child as a title derives from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, and the political undertones of that act and its pitfalls are certainly present. However, to quote Dramaturg and Definition Theatre Company Member Jared Bellot’s note in the program:

“Yes, the implications of No Child Left Behind (and all of its past and future iterations) vibrate within the halls of the fictional Malcom X High School, but that is not what this story is about.”

Sun’s play is about the students themselves – their hopes, their challenges, and their lives – both inside and outside the classroom. It is about a relationship between a teaching artist and her students, and what happens when she meets them where they are at and invests in them. This writer happens to be a teaching artist, and Alli’s performance is beautifully authentic, and appropriately highlights the very real challenges that Sun infuses into her witty script.

Cleverly Crafted Design and Stagin

The stage as a whole is designed with impressive detail by Scenic Designer Therese Richie , replete with writing on the desks, and the amusing messages and hangman games left on the chalk board by students, further highlighting the dark humor of the piece. However, that which is most impressive is the collaboration between Ike, the artistic team, and actors to create the effect of a large group of students with only three actors.

Costume Designer Alexis Chaney dresses the students appropriately – school uniform of khaki pants, blue polo, and an optional red jacket. Each of the actors assigned the role of a student play multiple students within a scene, and with the help of Ike and Chaney, seamlessly switch between roles with the slightest switch of a costume piece.

For example, the audience first meets Victor Musoni in the role of Jerome – one of the louder male students who is always ready with a quick comeback. Jerome wears a baseball hat and pushes the sleeves of his red sweatshirt up to the elbow. Then – and in an remarkably graceful manner by Musoni, he brings down the sleeves, zips the jacket, and removes the hat, and suddenly becomes Phillip, a quiet and shy boy with an unrealized dream of becoming an actor. The other two actors – Netta Walker and Lawren Carter, played their character switches with an equal sense of ease – so graceful that it often went unnoticed by this writer until the character spoke. Ike’s staging as a whole of the piece is well-crafted and subtle, and these costume changes pushed that aesthetic over the top.

A thought-provoking script and a brilliant ensemble make No Child, in this writer’s view, a must-see. Educators will certainly find the subject-matter relatable, but this is not just a story for them. Sun’s play acts as a powerful reminder that the lives of young people deserve every bit of attention.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Note: This is now added to the Picture this Post round up of BEST PLAYS IN CHICAGO, where it will remain until the end of the run. Click here to read — Top Picks for Theater in Chicago NOW – Chicago Plays PICTURE THIS POST Loves.

Running Time: 80 minutes, no intermission