PicksInSix Review: The Nacirema Society - Goodman Theatre
A Powerful, Laugh-Out Loud Triumph!
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Kaitlyn Linsner
Expect the unexpected in the Chicago premiere of Pearl Cleage’s extravagant and absurd comedy, “The Nacirema Society.” The play shines as the opener of Susan Booth’s first curated season as Goodman Theatre’s Artistic Director and as a joyous and nuanced exploration of how class, family tradition, honor, privilege, young love, ambition and social responsibility all present in everyday life. These themes mixed with over-the-top drama sets the stage for big gasps and even bigger laughs. Grab a glass of sherry, sit back and welcome to the lavish home of Grace Dubose Dunbar.
“The Nacirema Society” drops us into the world of a prosperous, aristocratic Black family, the Dunbars, in 1964 Montgomery, Alabama. The mighty and entitled matriarch of the family, Grace Dubose Dunbar (E. Faye Butler), is also the grande dame of the Nacirema Society, a social club for affluent Black women in the South. The Society is preparing for the centennial year of its annual debutante ball, and Grace expects perfection in everything and everyone around her including her effervescent granddaughter Gracie (Demetra Dee) who is making her debut at the centennial ball.
The plot weaves in another family—the working-class single mother Alpha Campell-Jackson (Tyla Abercrumbie) and her daughter Lille (Felicia Oduh)—who dig up Dunbar family secrets and rattle Dunbar family skeletons. The juxtaposition of these two families during the Civil Rights Movement illuminates the impacts of class and generational expectations in navigating change and legacy. The two families collide with great hilarity in the second act.
Cleage’s remarkable writing and dialogue are brought to life under the superb direction of Lili-Anne Brown and the outstanding cast of powerhouse talent. Butler and Abercrumbie command the stage. Oduh and Dee are so honest and charming in depicting teenage eagerness, and the ensemble works beautifully together on stage to elevate each scene.
Plus, the physical comedy is inspired. Ora Jones has a stand-out comedic performance as Grace’s nervous-wreck of a friend lurking on stage at the epicenter of a blackmail scheme. Shariba Rivers as the maid also had the audience buzzing as she collects coats, listens in from the stairs and eventually indulges in a glass of sherry herself as everything unravels.
Perhaps the best part of “The Nacirema Society” is as you find yourself belly laughing from start to finish, you are also deeply moved. This play stands strong as a delightful piece of theater that connects us through its content and characters all while creating an exuberant community in that experience.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | KAITLYN LINSNER is a Chicago-based attorney practicing construction and surety law.
PHOTO|Liz Lauren
GOODMAN THEATRE
presents
The Nacirema Society
EXTENDED through October 22
Albert Theatre
170 N. Dearborn St.
(312) 443-3800
WEBSITE
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