{"id":17776,"date":"2015-04-24T19:53:41","date_gmt":"2015-04-25T02:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=17776"},"modified":"2015-04-24T19:57:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T02:57:07","slug":"berkeley-drama-swings-from-plodding-to-powerful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/berkeley-drama-swings-from-plodding-to-powerful\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkeley drama swings from plodding to powerful"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 4]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Shelah (Cheryl Lynn Bruce) tests her faith as Creaker (Michael A. Shepperd) looks on in \u201cHead of Passes.\u201d Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com<\/p><\/div>\n

When \u201cHead of Passes\u201d ended, a stunned audience forgot to clap for a few seconds.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Thunderous applause then filled the void.<\/p>\n

And the crowd silently shuffled from the Thrust Stage of the Berkeley Rep, struggling to decrypt mentally what it just experienced.<\/p>\n

\u201cHead of Passes\u201d is a play on many levels \u2014 an epic about loss and an African American family in the marshlands of southern Louisiana, certainly \u2014 but mostly it\u2019s about faith.<\/p>\n

And after a first act that ground exceedingly slow, I could intensely feel playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney\u2019s power in the second \u2014 his power to enthrall, to confuse, to evoke long discussions afterward.<\/p>\n

My wife and I dissected it for a full hour on the way home.<\/p>\n

To no conclusion.<\/p>\n

Or accord.<\/p>\n

The allegorical, mostly tragic drama bursts with homages to the biblical tale of Job.<\/p>\n

But the modernized lightning rod for good and evil is Shelah Reynolds, a widow so pious she can\u2019t stand even hearing the phrase deviled eggs.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s seriously ill, coughing up blood.<\/p>\n

An increasingly dense storm threatens her home, outside and in, and a metaphorical tempest imperils her family on the eve of her birthday.<\/p>\n

A remarkable Cheryl Lynn Bruce plays Shelah with alternating disorder and control, making the central role even more her own than when Chicago\u2019s Steppenwolf Theatre Company first produced the play in 2013.<\/p>\n

McCraney\u2019s reworked other parts of \u201cHead of Passes\u201d as well, declaring in a Berkeley Rep magazine interview that it\u2019s gotten \u201cdeeper and more focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelah\u2019s sermonettes to her family and herself gradually build to a soliloquy-crescendo in a tirade to God about life and sin.<\/p>\n

Her patience and her rage become the hues on a canvas splashed with semi-madness, muddle and, finally, clarity.<\/p>\n

The gifted cast adds many textures.<\/p>\n

Francois Battiste and Brian Tyree Henry ably support Bruce as Shelah\u2019s adult sons, garrulous Aubrey and lethargic Spencer.<\/p>\n

And Nikkole Salter brings her drug-addicted half-daughter, Cookie, to life.<\/p>\n

But I dare not omit any actor because each does well in a play in which family relations are cavernous, complicated and chaotic.<\/p>\n

That includes Michael A. Shepperd as Creaker, a giant-sized employee responsible for much of the play\u2019s sparse but welcome humor; Kimberly Scott as Mae, a bouncy friend; Jonathan Burke as Creaker\u2019s indecisive son, Crier; and James Carpenter, as Shelah\u2019s dispirited healer, Dr. Anderson.<\/p>\n

Finally, a buff angel only Shelah can see hangs around, tolerantly watching and waiting for her to strip away her wig, outer garments, character armor and lies.<\/p>\n

Sullivan Jones portrays him as embodied with both menace and hope.<\/p>\n

Despite McCraney\u2019s talent and the skill of the players, G.W. Skip Mercier\u2019s set almost overpowers everything. It comes apart on cue, ostensibly destroyed by the deluge, with parts of the stage incrementally becoming a moat-like riverbank.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the most memorable stagecraft I\u2019ve seen in decades, as imaginative as the falling chandelier of \u201cPhantom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Longtime McCraney collaborator Tina Landau directed \u201cHead of Passes,\u201d which refers to the tri-forked marshlands where the Mississippi joins the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d been with McCraney at Steppenwolf, too, so the pair has shaped the play from its genesis.<\/p>\n

The playwright, Bay Area theatergoers may remember, created the Brothers\/Sisters Plays, a trilogy performed at the Marin Theatre Company, the Magic Theatre and the American Conservative Theater.<\/p>\n

For me, \u201cHead of Passes\u201d brings to mind, at once, the Old Testament, Kafka and Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

Inspired antecedents, indeed.<\/p>\n

And powerful.<\/p>\n

\u201cHead of Passes\u201d plays at the Berkeley Rep\u2019s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley, through May 24. Night performances, 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays. Matinees, 2 p.m. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets: $14.50 to $79, subject to change. Information: (510) 647-2949\u00a0www.berkeleyrep.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a>\u00a0or check out his website at\u00a0http:\/\/vitalitypress.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 4] When \u201cHead of Passes\u201d ended, a stunned audience forgot to clap for a few seconds. Thunderous applause then filled the void. And the crowd silently shuffled from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"