Playwright: Lynn Nottage. At: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Tickets: 312-443-3800; www.goodmantheatre.org; $25-$81. Runs through: June 2
Cinema history, we are told, suffered a great loss in the fire destroying the Celestial Pictures studios in 1947, leaving only one filman unremarkable 1933 melodrama titled The Belle of New Orleans, its screenplay based on a Bernard St. Simon novel (but suspiciously similar to Dion Boucicault's 1859 play, The Octoroon)to witness our country's first glimpse of the talented African-American artist named Vera Stark. Though she would go on to appear in other movies, her troubled life would reflect the limited opportunities that marked the early days of motion pictures, even as it paved the way for such luminaries as Dorothy Dandridge and Diahann Carroll.
The hallmark of good parody is that you can hardly distinguish it from its source material. Lazy playgoers overlooking the teeny-tiny playbill footnote will likely go home thinking that they have seen an actual biodrama documenting the story of the mysterious woman whom cineastes would praise as a front-runner in the depiction of ethnic minorities in Hollywood and civil-rights activists would vilify as a barrier to progress. In fact, Vera Stark, and the people who figure in her career, are fictional characters created by playwright Lynn Nottagegeneric representations of the players forced to endure personal humiliation in their quest during the Great Depression, not for stardom, but simply for any paying job.
Stark's peers include Black actresses who pose as hot-tamale Latinas, who deliberately overeat to qualify for "mammy" roles, and who self-consciously alter their voices and body language to mimic popular notions of antebellum slaves. White actresses, even those enjoying celebrity status, didn't have it much better. The clean and wholesome ingenue Gloria MitchellStark's co-star, former employer and lifelong friendalso must guard her private past or risk losing her livelihood.
It's easy to imagine nervous actors hamming this material for the sake of cheap laughs, but the production currently occupying the Goodman stage is chiefly characterized by its strict adherence to its satirical source, beginning with cinematography so artfully aged that you'd swear it was the real thing. The scholarly analyses promulgated by a panel of pundits (quoted in the show's publicity campaign) likewise mimics academic fashions to the last ibid. and op.cit. At the heart of Nottage's arguments, however, is the cast led by Tamberla Perry as the everywoman Vera Stark, whose persona and progress are guaranteed to awaken memories of their real-world counterparts (but how many of their names can you remember?).