PicksInSix Review: Is God Is - A Red Orchid Theatre
“Deceptive power fuels “Is God Is.”
PicksInSix® Review|Guest Contributor Ronald Keaton
There is a challenging, stylish production at A Red Orchid Theatre entitled “Is God Is,” where violence is examined from the standpoint of families and their histories, in a kind of rebellious, yet bracing take by playwright Aleshea Harris that plays at the legendary Old Town theatre through May 28.
Directed in pointed and demanding strokes by the fine Milwaukee-based actor/director Marti Gobel, “Is God Is” tells the difficult story of a family unit wracked by domestic and criminal violence that uses a dose of dark humor to make the hard moments palatable for people to bear—and for an audience to follow in the story. And does it very well. Harris is an intelligent, resourceful writer whose full mix of familial language and street vernacular grabs us by the scruff of the neck and holds on. It produces moments that are eye-opening and brutally truthful.
Twin sisters Anaia (Ashli Rene Funches) and Racine (Aja Singletary) have scars, physical scars that we are meant to see and be uncomfortable with. They stem from a fire in their house that was set by their father when they were much younger children, and they’ve been told that their mother (dubbed ‘She’) is dead, that is until a letter comes from her wanting to see them. As they see She (Karen Aldridge) in her withered, damaged state close to death, they get a chilling request. These three artists—Funches and Singletary in their fun, give-and-take sister dynamic, and Aldridge in a stunning, frightening take as a burn victim facing death—are worth the price of admission. But there’s more here than meets the eye.
As an audience member, this writer discovers here the value of truly innovative storytelling, which at first seemed problematic. The sister’s revengeful quest that follows stretches from the Deep South to California. At first I wondered why we had so little to work with in accepting the story. It sneaks up on you, really: murderous acts that Racine and Anaia commit on a lawyer (a wild-haired, almost hippie-like Sherman Edwards), on the father’s second wife (Rita Wicks, whose suburban entitlement is wonderfully ironic) and on the twin…yes, twin sons Riley (a humorously deadpan Donovan Session) and Scotch (Andrew Muwonge in a hilarious turn as a self-aware writer) of this second family. The bodies start piling up like so much kindling wood around a campfire.
At last, Man—the character name for the father – comes home. As Man, Kevin Minor is at once threatening, dark and ironic in his defense of what he did all those years ago. We first see him in a silent mime during the original description of the fire by She. We hear his voice share an explanation that bespeaks the cycle of violence that he has instigated, that this family has endured, and that we in the audience take with disturbing ease.
The ending is a surprise that will not be revealed here. It took getting away from the actual production to reflect upon and fully understand the experience. The entire 100 minutes of performance does not at all give us an easy ride. But it makes us think and consider why we accept such violence in our midst with seeming ease, like a Sam Peckinpah film of yore. Makes one wonder if we have indeed become so numb in our society, no matter the form or reason for it, that we put it on an unbecoming list of solutions. “Is God Is” has that kind of numbing, deceptive power.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com Coming soon, his new solo play “Echo Holler.” www.echoholler.com
PHOTO|Fadeout Media
A Red Orchid Theatre
presents
1531 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610
through May 28
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(312) 943-8722
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