Sullivan Jones (The Angel) and Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Shelah) perform in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head of Passes, a poignant and poetic new play about the journey of family and faith, trial and tribulation at Berkeley Rep. Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com
Head of Passes: Drama by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Directed by Tina Landau. Berkeley Rep. Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, 2925 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org. April 10 –May 24, 2015.
Head of Passes: A modern day parable of The Book of Job [rating:4]
Tarell Alvin McCraney burst on to the Bay Area theatrical scene five years ago when his trilogy The Brother and Sister Plays received spectacular productions at three different theatres. Those plays explore life in the mythical Louisiana Bayou town of San Pere. They begot life at the Marin Theatre Company with their stunning production of In the Red and Brown Water before the baton for Part Two, The Brothers Size, was passed on to the Magic Theatre receiving a muscular standing ovation production under Octavio Solis’s direction. Part Three: Marcus: The Secret of Sweet, was handed over to A.C.T. who mounted a flashy stirring staging but did not match the muscular productions of Parts One and Two.
Berkeley Rep Stage receives the honors with his return to the Bay Area for Head of Passes as a co-production with New York’s Public Theatre. McCraney again sets his characters in the Louisiana Bayou in the mouth of the Mississippi called ‘the head of passes” where the land is below sea level and is ever shifting because of floods and tidal surges. In The Brother and Sister Plays it is hurricane Katrina that wreaks havoc and it seems a foregone conclusion that McCraney is setting us up for a similar disaster before the play ends.
The inspiration for the play is the Biblical “Book of Job” and was commissioned by Chicago’s Steppenwolf theatre where it was staged in 2010. The concept of Faith again takes center stage with the protagonist Shelah (Cheryl Lynn Bruce), an elderly widowed Black woman questioning, nay accepting God’s creation of death and destruction of her family and home.
(l to r) Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Shelah), Brian Tyree Henry (Spencer), and Francois Battiste (Aubrey)
The family consists of adult children Aubrey (Francois Battiste), and Spencer (Brian Tyree Henry) who are preparing a birthday party for her that is intended to be a surprise. Aiding in that endeavor is a preacher, Creaker (Michael Shepperd) and his son Crier (Jonathan Burke). Non-family uninvited persons include friend Mae (Kimberly Scott) and Shelah’s white doctor Dr. Anderson (James Carpenter). There is “The Angel” (Sullivan Jones), dressed in an elegant black suit and bow tie who wanders in and out of the action. He is seen only by Shelah. Also uninvited is the mysterious volatile sister Cookie (Nikkole Salter) whose arrival is antecedent to the climatic ending of act one.
As in the Book of Job, when Job’s offspring are having a party a mighty wind sweeps in and collapses the house, killing Job’s beloved children, so it is with Shelah’s home and family. The set (G. W. Skip Mercier) and its fantastic destruction from wind and rising water almost over shadow the brilliant acting and tight direction by Tina Landau who kept the play in check.
Cheryl Lynn Bruce who created the role in its original production is a force of nature when, she like King Lear, rails against the elements questioning God in her 20 minute monolog in the second act. Yet through all this questioning she maintains her faith. Francois Battiste’s range of emotion from the love of his mother to hate for his half-sister Cookie can be felt across the apron of the thrust stage. James Carpenter brings compassion to the role as the doctor especially when he is forced to bring the news to Shelah of the death of her entire family.
To this reviewer there are two caveats; one being the ill-defined reason for the animosity between Cookie and Audrey and the other is the extended final monolog that could be trimmed to create a more powerful ending. Never-the-less this play is highly recommended with a running time two hours with an intermission.
Cast: Francois Battiste (Aubrey), Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Shelah), Jonathan Burke (Crier), James Carpenter (Dr. Anderson), Brian Tyree Henry (Spencer), Sullivan Jones (The Angel), Nikkole Salter (Cookie), Kimberly Scott (Mae), and Michael A. Shepperd (Creaker)
Creative team: Directed by Tina Landau, G, W. Skip Mercier (scenic designer), Toni-Leslie James (costume designer), Scott Zielinski (lighting designer), and Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen (sound designers)
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
Sullivan Jones (The Angel) and Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Shelah) perform in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head of Passes, a poignant and poetic new play about the journey of family and faith, trial and tribulation at Berkeley Rep. Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com
(l to r) Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Shelah), Brian Tyree Henry (Spencer), and Francois Battiste (Aubrey) perform in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head of Passes, a poignant and poetic new play about the journey of family and faith, trial and tribulation.
