You know you’ve witnessed a night of great theater when you’re shaking so badly with emotion that it takes awhile to get to your feet to give the actors a standing ovation. Part of you is feeling lighthearted because of the show’s playful good humor, but another part of you is also feeling devastated, since you’ve just come face-to-face with as powerful a representation as possible of the frailties of the human condition.
“Broke-ology” is a term coined by the character Ennis to mean “the science of being broke, and staying alive despite your broke-ness.” In these days of economic hardship, far too many of us have more than a passing familiarity with that science. Truly, this is a play for our times.
Just four characters inhabit the stage, and the setting never changes—a drab, yet comfortable living room and kitchen in the Quindaro neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. There are bars on the windows to keep out street gangs, but homey touches (homemade doilies and a shelf brimming with family-oriented activities like dominoes and “The Match Game”) and lots of love inside. In spite of the hand-to-mouth existence of the African-American family in that home, it’s easy to see that they are rich in the things that matter.
“What happens to a dream deferred?” the poet Langston Hughes once asked. As the play progresses, we see that this family’s dreams are in the process of dying. Sonia, the wife and mother, who dreamed of being an artist, has died of cancer. One son, Ennis, has a pregnant (and somewhat demanding) girlfriend and works in a dead-end restaurant job, and another son, Malcolm, has triumphantly returned home from his college graduation, but has no intentions of staying in that house. And William, once the strong, bold father, has been brought low by complications of multiple sclerosis. His cherished role was as head of the family and caregiver, but now he is becoming dependent on his sons.
If this sounds like a play that could drag you down, you need to be aware that it also has the capacity to lift you up. You won’t believe the hilarity that ensues when William sings along to the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” with the help of a garden gnome! The acting is superb, to the point that you feel that you genuinely know each character. David Emerson Toney, who portrays William, will break your heart with his stubborn resistance to giving in to his encroaching disability, and yet he’ll make you smile through your tears, with his infectious laugh.
Larry Powell, as Malcolm, the son who went away to college in Connecticut and has seen what the rest of the world has to offer, feels his old Kansas City, Kansas life entrapping him, when he wants to fulfill his dreams in academia. He is torn between staying home and caring for his ailing father and fleeing back to his shining new possibilities. “I’m stuck!” he cries out in anguish. And his voice is so wracked with pain that we can all empathize and relate to his dilemma—how can we fulfill our obligations to our family and yet live our own lives to the fullest?
Shamika Cotton, as Sonia, appears at the beginning of the play, pregnant with her first child, and brimming with hope. Later, we learn, she never got the chance to fulfill her artistic aspirations, and instead became a “light Nazi” (turning every light in the house off whenever possible) and devising creative ways to come up with meals for her family (“peanut butter spoons,” a dessert created by dipping spoons into peanut butter and then licking the peanut butter off the spoons, was one of her inventions), after her husband is laid off work. Cotton plays the part in such a natural way that we expect her to walk off the stage and hold an animated conversation with us.
Ennis, the brother who didn’t go to college and who now comes home from work “smelling like charred meat,” resents Malcolm’s opportunities, and pressures him to stay home and take care of his father. (In fact, he makes a list of reasons why Malcolm should stay in Kansas City, and Reason Number One is “barbecue rib tips”!) Postell Pringle plays Ennis in such a way that the character grows and develops, as the action moves along. We can see Ennis, who at first seems a bit selfish and immature, starting to accept his responsibilities, and getting some insight into other peoples’ needs.
Nathan Louis Jackson, the playwright, hails from Kansas City, Kansas, and based much of the storyline on interactions in his own family. He’s a gifted young writer, and I know we’ll hear more from him. Kyle Hatley directs with a deft touch and a complete understanding of the subject matter. A special nod must be given to Victor En Yu Tan, lighting designer, for the chiaroscuro of light and shadow that permeates the show. The reflections of the disco ball coming down from the ceiling as William sings a classic Motown hit add even more depth to the scene.
Broke-ology, which recently completed a run at New York’s Lincoln Center, runs through March 21 at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s Copaken stage. Call 816-235-2700 or go to www.kcrep.org for tickets to a Kansas City Getaway that you won’t soon forget.
Comments
Broke-ology is wonderful. It's especially fun for a KC audience, since it's set in the Quindaro neighborhood of KCK and other familiar and nearby place names, such as Lawrence and Bonner Springs, come up in the dialogue.
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