Pictured Jason Delane in Yellowman.
Playwright: Dael Orlandersmith
At: Next Theatre Company at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes, Evanston
Phone: (847) 475-1875; $18-$29
Runs through: May 23
Dividing factors may change from time to time, place to place, tribe to tribe, but a common characteristic of all intolerance is the inevitable human propensity to emulate those they envy. Power/wealth/status in the United States being still largely represented by the descendents of its early settlers, the ideal American continues to be endowed with Nordic features, mesomorphic physique and a Norman or Anglo-Saxon surname. The irony driving Dael Orlandersmith's tragic tale of star-crossed lovers is that these values should be shared by the African-American community in the economically depressed Gullah region of North Carolina.
Star-crossed lovers? Make that gene-crossed. Alma's misfortune is to have been born dark and robust like her slatternly mother, while Eugene's is to have been born light-skinned and slight of build like HIS mother, herself disowned by her parents for choosing a husband of swarthy complexion. From the moment that Alma and Eugene meet as children, their friendship will suffer the hostility of kinsmen twisted by prejudice, injustice, and resentment. Throughout their trials, Alma and Eugene remain faithful to one another, but just when escape seems imminent, what appears to be a stroke of good luck heralds the death of their hopes for a life together.
It is easy to envision this story as a cinematic epic, cluttered with rainbow-coalition montages and picturesque scenic locations, but by structuring her narrative in alternating monologues for two actors on a stage bare except for a pair of chairs, Orlandersmith makes the language her play's focus. In lesser hands, this approach could quickly reduce itself to a Duet For Talking Heads, but Chuck Smith's direction deftly introduces visual business while never allowing it to distract us from imagery rendered all the more powerfully vivid by our imaginations.
Jacqueline Williams and Jason Delane confront the challenge of portraying over a dozen characters, each delineated by a distinctive voice, in twin tour de force performances, invoking a gallery of keenly etched personalities with effortless grace, profound compassion and unflinching candor even when conjuring scenes of shocking cruelty. The results are an eloquent plea for an end to the misunderstandings that engender only inhumanity and needless destruction. \