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

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PicksInSix Review: "cullud wattah" - Victory Gardens Theater

Great Purpose, Power Drive “cullud wattah”
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor Ronald Keaton

Big Ma (Renee Lockett) says to Reesee (Ireon Roach), as they share their troubles together, “Yo’ hurt ain’t even knee-high yet” in cullud wattah, the ambitious new play by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, now playing at Victory Gardens Theater through July 17. It’s a sentence that rings true for the fortunes of a down-on-its-luck family trying to right the ship. Directed in a stylish, free-flowing manner by VG Resident Director Lili-Anne Brown, cullud wattah ostensibly deals with the tragic public water crisis in Flint, Michigan – a calamity that has continued in some form or another in the now eight years since the tragedy became public.

The crisis, however, is examined in this play through the eyes of one African-American family, all women…and all going through their own difficulties.  Plum (Demetra Dee) is the youngest in the family and the one facing the most immediate challenge – cancer.  It’s a cancer that was puzzling in its origin until a report came out, saying that lead had been discovered in the new water source for the city, the Flint River.  Marion (Brianna Buckley) has just gotten a dramatic promotion and raise at her job at General Motors – the company suspected and accused of contaminating the river water.

Her sister Ainee (Sydney Charles) has a checkered history of addiction and miscarriage and is now pregnant for the seventh time. When the news of a class-action lawsuit comes that the family could be a part of, Ainee jumps at the opportunity with relish, while Marion strongly hesitates in favor of the guaranteed income and chance to financially change the family’s luck. The battle between the two sisters is almost epic in substance, as Big Ma tries to be a kind of mediator, while realizing her own mixed feelings on the entire affair.

The switch in the water source to the Flint River ultimately became a financial choice, as the River was more affordable than Lake Huron, obtained through arrangement with the city of Detroit, an hour away. It proved to be an albatross around the neck of Flint city fathers, who apparently ignored reports that the water was tainted. This then became a national issue, of course, and affected thousands in the Flint area – especially school children.

Ms. Dickerson-Despenza’s strong writing has a dual purpose here.  It articulates the family struggle – we see scores of water bottles containing liquids of all colors across the entire stage setting. It shows the power of the bureaucracy through barriers that constantly shadow the family’s attempts to escape this situation and just make it right for themselves.  The scenic work of Sydney Lynne is overpowering – one might question if it was a bit too much, but hey, it’s a play with a definite point of view.  Such power can indeed be justified, particularly with a behemoth like General Motors avoiding well-documented and sometimes redacted responsibility.

One should hesitate to share the play’s conclusion; it’s shocking and yet strongly resolute. cullud wattah was written by the playwright with great purpose, directed with power by Ms. Brown, and offered onstage by a cast with obvious affinity for each other.  As a family should.  The hurt may be more than knee-high, but it needs to be for this family to share and help us understand the alacrity of the story’s dilemma. 

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL www.solochicagotheatre.com

PHOTO|Liz Lauren

VICTORY GARDENS THEATER
presents
cullad wattah
2433 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614
through July 17

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