tlashop.com

Review

After reading the Brother/Sister Plays by the exciting young playwright, Tarrell Alvin McCraney, I can definitely see why they’ve had such successful stagings at some of the most prestigious theatre companies in America and the world. I’m talking about The Public Theatre in New York, The Steppenwolf in Chicago, the McCarter in Princeton, the Yale School of Drama (where they were done in workshop and developed) and the Young Vic in London (which is affiliated with the Royal Shakespeare Co. where Mr. McCraney has served as Writer in Residence) to name a few. Why have these productions been so highly lauded? Because the three plays included in this stunning volume together and apart, are awesomely authentic, uniquely brilliant and thoroughly captivating… to READ! And if it ain’t on the page baby, it ain’t on the stage! The first play is called In the Red and Brown Water and introduces us to the girl Oya a talented track athlete who must make consequential decisions by weighing biological urges against family ties along the road to becoming a woman. The second story is called The Brothers Size and is about the trials and tribulations of two brothers who love each other but drive each other crazy. One, the older, is Ogun: a highly emotional auto shop mechanic and owner. The other, the younger, is Oshoosi: a recent prison inmate struggling with new found freedom. Lastly we have the play Marcus: Or the Secret of Sweet which follows the plight of Marcus: a young man of sixteen coming to grips with his sexuality in spite of major outside pressure stemming from family and friends. All of these plays- which smoulder and flare in the tradition of Tennessee Williams and August Wilson- take place in “mythical” San Pere, Louisiana in the “distant present”. They are based to a degree on West African mythology which gives the plays added weight, dimension, resonance and sensuality. There is also an aura of magical mystery and deep spirituality to these plays. They’re actually hauntingly beautiful yet ever so down to earth. Best of all, these plays are marvelously interconnected through common themes of love, sex, music and “blakmophobia”. Yes these plays are funny as well. The contemporary black southern idiom in which they are written is a vernacular which is exceedingly fun to read and understand.

Though I’ve heretofore missed the stagings of these powerfully poetic plays as have most of us, I am convinced they will be produced for many years to come and the odds are in my favor that I’ll be able to successfully seek them out. Till then there’s plenty to be gained by reading them. They stick with you. To me really great plays lift, enthrall, delight and enlighten. These plays do this. It’s not often that great plays make great literature, but these plays I am sure lose little in translation from stage to page. They are that soulful, real, genuine and original.

 -- Matthew Styles