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Shaw Competition: The Amen Nook by James Baldwin, directed by Kimberley Rampersad, Competition Theatre, June 20 to Oct. 1. Tickets right here.
It has turn out to be de rigueur in these final couple of years for these large theatre festivals to characteristic a play of consequence by an acclaimed Black playwright.
Whereas there are lots of performs pouring out of the Black neighborhood right now that centre on modern points, by going again to the Black classics, because it have been, audiences are given a context to the Black expertise. These performs by the Black pioneers of theatre include the threads of the previous that proceed to influence Black lives right now.
As a corollary impact, these giant forged performs additionally present plenty of juicy roles for the superb Black actors that this nation is producing. And let’s be frank: it takes an enormous pageant to mount an enormous play. If not Shaw and Stratford, then who?
The Playwright
James Baldwin (1924-1987) is likely one of the best-known Black writers to emerge within the explosive mid-50s of the final century. A Black activist, the very query of race relations sits on the very coronary heart of his canon of labor.
Baldwin grew up in dire poverty in Harlem. Inspired by his mom concerning the significance of training, he utilized for and was accepted into a superb highschool. After commencement, Baldwin took on menial jobs as he tried to determine his profession as a author.
Baldwin’s many novels and essays are principally impressed by autobiographical particulars, significantly the inclusion of homosexual males caught in an identification disaster, set towards the broader social and political upheavals of the instances. His anti-heroes symbolize the marginalized. He additionally had a really strained relationship together with his preacher-stepfather, and the influence of faith additionally figures in his writing.
Distraught by the remedy of Blacks in America, Baldwin first moved to France in 1948 the place he in the end spent most of his grownup life. His most well-known e book, Go Inform It on the Mountain (1953), is listed amongst Time Journal’s biggest 100 English-language novels of the twentieth century.
The Play — Baldwin’s The Amen Nook
Amongst his huge literary output, Baldwin wrote solely two performs, of which The Amen Nook (1954) was the primary. As said earlier than, it comprises many autobiographical allusions.
Sadly, whereas Baldwin pined to be a playwright, his forte lay in each different literary kind, and fairly frankly, the play isn’t significantly well-written. It rambles, it’s repetitive, it’s over-long and predictable, even simplistic, however nonetheless, it does handle to have some very robust moments, propelled by some dazzling performances, and beautiful stay gospel music.
The central determine, Sister Margaret Alexander (Janelle Cooper), is a preacher at a nook (storefront) Pentecostal church in Harlem. She lives together with her son David (Andrew Broderick), a music faculty pupil, and her sympathetic sister Odessa (Alana Bridgewater).
We discover out early on that she is having a battle with David, who needs to turn out to be an expert jazz musician, which Sister Margaret sees as godless. She needs him to proceed taking part in the piano for the choir and observe her as a preacher. When her long-estranged musician husband Luke (Allan Louis) returns residence as a result of he’s dying, issues begin to unravel for Sister Margaret.
David is entranced by his father and his supposed glittering jazz profession, whereas her congregation is horrified to study that, reasonably than Luke abandoning his spouse and little one, it was Margaret who abandoned him.
They see her spiritual convictions as being pure hypocrisy, as a result of they have been seeded within the ruins of her household. How can she presumably counsel her parishoners based mostly on her besmirched previous? A motion then begins to oust her as preacher, spearheaded by the holier-than-thou Sister Moore (Monica Parks). Even Margaret’s shut hangers-on, Brother Boxer (David Alan Anderson) and his spouse (Jenni Burke), in the end desert the sinking ship.
Connecting the scenes collectively is the gospel choir, and the music is just wonderful. Kudos to Jeremiah Sparks who directed the choir in collaboration with Paul Sportelli. The divine nature of the music is in direct distinction to the ugliness going down in each Sister Margaret’s household and her church. We additionally get doses of jazz music to introduce the profane into the combo.
The burden of faith overshadows the characters, that are cyphers in a method. It’s an indignant Baldwin saying that faith is conserving the Blacks down as a result of they’re ready for his or her reward within the subsequent life, when they need to be preventing for dignity and justice on this life.
(And on a word of trivia — actor Marlon Brando gave Baldwin $75 to pay for his bills, so he may write the play.)
The Manufacturing
The play has a really troublesome set to configure. There needs to be the church, and Sister Margaret’s residence, together with a kitchen and a bed room for Luke.
The Amen Nook’s set designer, Anahita Dehbonehie, solved her downside by placing the church above the dwelling quarters, with this two-story construction rotating to disclose the bed room off the kitchen. This does, nonetheless, imply a whole lot of stairs for individuals to go up and down, utilizing each the inside and exterior staircases, which is a bit distracting. An additional rotation reveals the surface brick wall of the constructing, and a fireplace escape.
I’m in utter awe of costume designer A.W. Nadine Grant’s Fifties look. Each one of many church ladies, and there are a whole lot of them, have a distinct go well with or costume and a hat.
It fell to lighting designer Mikael Kangas to orchestrate this difficult set, which he did with dispatch.
Appearing and Directing
As for the performing, it’s a standout, and it is extremely exhausting to single out first amongst equals. In Amen, I level to Cooper, who does an amazing job going from assured to defeated, Bridgewater because the long-suffering Odessa, and Parks because the sharp-tongued spiritual vigilante.
As for course, Amen’s Kimberly Rampersad discovered the correct pacing, leisurely and guaranteed, with the intention to let the drama sink in.
For her half, Rampersad additionally had the extra activity of directing her forged up, down, and throughout the stage. She additionally needed to fastidiously time when to convey characters up the steps to the church when different scenes are occurring, to not point out leaving some characters sitting there in darkness. She tried to create a minimal of fuss, which she managed to principally do.
Remaining Ideas
In essence, The Amen Nook is a play about love. To Baldwin, love in all its manifestations, is the gateway to the soul.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, significantly on the position of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson College for the Arts.
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