Reviewed by Dianne Lawrence and Carla Weber
DL: I loved it! I didn’t know what to expect and I was totally engrossed from beginning to end. I didn’t get bored or tired. Everything about it, the story, music, sets and acting had me from beginning to end. I got to experience a full gamut of emotions. It took me for a great ride.
CW: I thought it was really good. It starts with a young girl (Angela Wildflower Polk) on a platform in Brooklyn, and as she’s waiting for a train to come, she goes back in time, almost like a retrospective of her DNA. You get to really explore her genetic memory of all these women that were important to her and who she had shunned because of the tragedy that had befallen her little brother.
DL: She got spun out of the circle because of it. Spun away from her family and roots. She takes on this hip-hop culture and tough façade while these women try to pull her back to her vulnerability. So it seemed like a story about reacquainting yourself with who you really are and where you come from. Embracing it.
CW: She really made the transition and became a much more developed humane person by the end. There were five women who participated in this, I’m thinking its her grandmother, her mother, aunt, and sisters…it was kind of vague.
DL: I couldn’t tell if they were her relatives or just women from that culture. But in the end they were all simply powerful
women almost like Shamans reminding her of vulnerability and the real needs that we all have and how circumstances can push us away from acknowledging our needs for one another and our own growth, transformation and acceptance. Even though it deals with African American women in an African American culture it’s the same journey for everyone. A rediscovery of vulnerability and things in the culture that push us away from it.
CW: She really put up a big fight but these women weren’t going to let her slide whatsoever. That was real fun to watch. I loved the set. That moving circle in the stage implying cycles of life. All those fabulous hats like pillars on either side of the stage. Very simple. Benches brought in and suddenly it’s a church. The actors were all powerful. Angela Wildflower Polk plays the young girl and she was exceptional. Her transformation was extraordinary. It was very moving and sometimes painful to watch and yet very satisfying in the end.
DL: Everyone just looked at her and said “major star” and this is not to take away from any of the other actors because everybody was just stellar.
CW: And of course we have to mention Clinton Derricks-Carroll. The one lone dude who played all the different men in the lives of the women. The character that really got me was the husband of the older woman. So touching and tender.
DL: He was amazing. There was the elegant and gentle Vanessa Bell-Calloway. The belter, Sharon Catherine Blanks. Made your hair stand up at the back of your neck. All of them were exceptional and worked powerfully as a group.
CW: And stood out as individuals. The dialogue was great. I had to write some of it down….”Hats are like people. Sometimes they conceal and sometimes they reveal.” And “I’ll loan my children before I loan my hat!” or “Sometimes under those hats are a lot of joy and a lot of sorrow.”We also have to mention the amazing musicians who accompanied the show.
DL: Before I saw the show I was skeptical. Hats. Easy cliché but those hats became powerful metaphors for how these women perceived themselves, how they presented themselves to the world.
CW & DL: It made me want to go and buy a hat!
CROWNS, adapted by ReGina Taylor
Starring Paula Kelly, Suzzanne Douglas, Dawnn Lewis, Ann Weldon, Sharon Catherine Blanks, Angela Wildflower Polk and Clinton Derricks-Carroll,
Directer Ebony Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Israel Hicks.
At the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, as a co-production with Pasadena Playhouse. 4718 W. Washington Blvd. 90016 323.964.9766
Now to JULY 5
