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Resurrection – New Hope for the Black Man’s Experience
Categories: UncategorizedLives intertwine as six characters ranging in age from 10 to 60 use narrative, movement, poetry and dialogue to express their failures, fears and finally, hope in their ability to affect change in Daniel Beaty’s exploration of the black man’s experience in Resurrection playing at Hartford Stage.
Mr. Rogers (Michael Genet) takes a risk and opens a health food store in the hood, hoping it will lead to a better future for his son, 10-year-old Eric (Thuliso Dingwall), who follows his life’s call to find a cure for the heartache of the black man by mixing his fathers herbs in various recipes disguised as herbal tea.
’Twon (Turron Kofi Alleyne) struggles against the system and Dyslexia to graduate from high school and plans to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Isaac (Alvin Keith), a successful marketing executive who exchanged climbing the charts as a singer for climbing the corporate ladder. Isaac, however, defines himself as an “alien in the disguise of a well adjusted black man,” who is hiding his sexual identity from his father the Bishop (in a great comedic turn by Jeffery V. Thompson) who heads a mega church. Meanwhile, the bishop has his own secret, he’s addicted to food, particularly soul food and Ho Hos ® snack cakes. He reaches out to Dre (Che Ayende), just out of prison, by funding a job for him at Rogers’ health food store.
The characters tell individual stories, but represent themes common to fathers and sons and to finding one’s identity, particularly that of a black man. Rogers worries about not being the breadwinner in the family; ’Twon feels the pressure to succeed and fears being a disappointment; Isaac is caught in a tug-of-war between loyalty toward his father and his lover; the bishop’s faith and his devotion to his son are in conflict and Dre cries out in desperation after learning his son may have HIV. In an allegory of the resurrection of Christ, the men find hope and healing in a sacrifice made by Eric.
The different types of storytelling work well under the direction of Oz Scott despite a tendency for dialogue to feel like a lecture at times. Humor and a vibrant score from Daniel Bernard Rouman round out the production which evokes comparison with Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, where nine actresses (directed by Scott in the original Broadway production) share their experiences as black women in a series of poems. Resurrection’s most compelling moments come when the men express their thoughts collectively in Beaty’s eloquent and moving poetry about the sacrifices of mothers and hope for a newborn child.
G.W. Mercier’s innovative tiled backdrop features a large angled cross containing numerous jars of herbs and opening to a blue sky. A nice lighting effect (Jason Arnold, adapting the original Arena Stage design) makes the cross transparent and suspends the jars midair. Karen Perry’s designs the costumes and Hope Clark choreographs.
---- Lauren Yarger
Resurrection plays at Hartford Stage (Church Street, Hartford) through Nov. 16. Performance times are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 7:30pm; Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Matinees are Sundays and selected Saturdays and Wednesdays at 2pm. Tickets are $23-$66 and can be purchased by calling 860-520-5151 or by visiting www.hartfordstage.org.
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