 |
| Clarence (Damien Burke) and Adelaide (Barika Croom) in Tiger Tiger Burning Bright. |
By Ed Rampell
Tiger Tiger Burning Bright is primarily a story of a New Orleans family full of deceitfulness as a means to exist. Not only fictions to each other, they are also lies to their own innermost selves in order to make life bearable, if not exactly livable.
Nothing beneath the surface is at it seems for Clarence Morris (Damien Burke), who stealthily enters the stage, sneaking back home through the bedroom window, after a long night’s journey into who knows what. The eldest son has been conning Mama (Regina Randolph) for years that he’s still gainfully employed. Sister Cille (DeShawn Barnes) internalizes the familial deceptions, which causes her a form of disability. Meanwhile the simpleminded younger brother, Dan (Richard John Reliford), is infatuated with his neighbor, Adelaide Smith (Barika A. Croom), a classic cold blooded man-ipulator.
While 1959’s Raisin in the Sun epitomizes the black family interaction play, Lorraine Hansberry’s theme of economic striving accurately reflected resurgent African-American aspirations during the Civil Rights movement. However, in Tiger Tiger Burning Bright -- set roughly during the same time period -- isn’t specifically black-themed, unlike Hansberry’s beloved northern urban drama. Randolph’s Mama may be redolent of Hattie McDaniel, Louise Beavers, Ethel Waters and Claudia McNeil’s strong, big bosomed “mammy-type” characters, but race makes only a brief appearance here.
Tiger Tiger Burning Bright’s playwright, Peter S. Feibleman, was Caucasian. His tale has far more in common playwright Tennessee Williams than Hansberry. The latter’s obsession with the “mendacity” Brick denounces to Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof also rings true in Mama’s Tiger Tiger Burning Bright household. While Adelaide might be reminiscent of Maggie the Cat, Cille would be right at home in The Glass Menagerie. In terms of family dynamics, one can also detect a Eugene O’Neill-type of sensibility riding this Tiger Tiger Burning Bright.
The two quibbles I have with Tiger Tiger Burning Bright’s production is the casting of Burke. There’s nothing wrong with his truthful acting, but the role requires Clarence to be an Adonis, and while Burke is pleasant enough looking, he doesn’t quite live up to the billing this role requires. It also strains credulity that the Morrises do not already know their longtime neighbors, the nerdy Dewey Chipley (Collin St. Dic), and his curious sister, Celeste (Janai Dionne), before the curtain rises. Really? Aren’t folks in Louisiana more down home than that? Well, perhaps the Morrises really are that insular, as they inhabit their make believe world full of illusion and pretense, finally transgressed by outsiders.
Chris Covics’s set skillfully evokes the Morris’ ramshackle home and environs -- clothesline, cemetery and all. The simple placement of a post serves to enhance the sense of an entry point and doorway that is essential to the action and a partially wall-less setting that requires the audience to suspend disbelief. Sam Nickens deftly directs an ensemble cast in a mostly realistic production that could be enjoyed by any aficionado of hard hitting, tense family dramas, no matter what his/her race or creed may be.
Tiger Tiger Burning Bright runs through May 22 on the Main Stage of the Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Blvd., 2nd Floor, Hollywood, CA, 90028. For more information: 323/960-7740; tickets.
No comments:
Post a Comment