The bored, unhappily married housewife (Dina Shadwell) smokes weed daily, uses foul language around her teenage son, Justin, and confides in him things no son should ever know about his mother. But that doesn’t soften his grief when she’s raped and murdered in the family’s basement 15 minutes into Gina Gionfriddo’s “After Ashley,” a provocative, tautly staged drama in Essential Theatre’s Power Play Festival.

Ashley’s fascination with the parade of sad sacks who populate advice shows on daytime TV (think “Dr. Phil”) foreshadows the way her own demise becomes a cause célèbre among “death-porn” shows that turn one person’s tragedy into another’s entertainment (think “America’s Most Wanted”).

It’s not coincidental that family patriarch Alden (Allen Hagler) resembles John Walsh, host of “America’s Most Wanted,” who parlayed grief over his son’s murder into a career in television. Alden, who writes a book about his wife’s murder, comports himself so well on a talk show promoting his whitewashed story that he’s offered a gig as host of a new sex crimes show that features “tasteful” re-enactments of attacks.

Lost in the fray is Justin (Brent Nicholas Rose), who is reeling from the loss of his mother and repulsed by his father’s revision of their family history and the success it brings him.

Enter charming Julie (Dowd Keith). The pseudo goth girl first seduces Justin because of his notoriety as “The 911 Kid.” (The recording of his frantic call to the police is sampled in a popular hip-hop song.) But she eventually sympathizes with Justin and helps him in some very surprising ways to blow the lid off the media frenzy that surrounds his mother’s death.

Produced in the tiny Back Stage Theatre at 7 Stages, the show has an intimacy that serves the drama’s tension well. Under Ellen McQueen’s direction, the performances are well-tempered, especially considering the highly charged emotions that run throughout, and the production is swiftly paced, despite a running time of two-plus hours.

Sonny Knox’s simple set is clever at first read: A lattice frame backdrop is hung with interchangeable paintings of images that represent the locale of each scene, but changing out the images ultimately proves noisy and distracting.

The emotional weight of the play lays primarily on Rose’s shoulders, and he does an admirable job portraying a confused, angry child who’s thrust too soon into an adult world. He bears the physicality of a thin, gangly teenager, but he convincingly conveys with equal parts rage and black humor a scathing indictment of the public’s prurient blood lust and the media’s eagerness to fulfill it.

THE 411: 8 p.m. July 16, 18, 21 and 26; $18-$22. Presented by Essential Theatre at 7 Stages Back Stage Theatre, 1105 Euclid Ave. N.E., Little Five Points. 1-877-840-0457, www.essentialtheatre.com.

BOTTOM LINE: A taut, timely drama about the public’s lust for reality TV tragedy and the media’s eagerness to supply it.

ALSO AT THE FEST: Paul Rudnick’s “Valhalla,” a comedy-fantasy about the king of Bavaria who goes mad trying to create beautiful fairy tale castles, and “West of Eden,” Letitia Sweitzer’s comedy about Adam and Eve in middle age.

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‘Purple’ majesty

By Wendell Brock | Wednesday, July 16, 2008, 09:51 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B+

After four years of searching, “The Color Purple” has finally found its emotional home.

It took a 2004 Alliance Theatre world premiere and a choppy Broadway production that felt designed by a corporate committee headed by Oprah Winfrey. It took mixed reviews and a disappointing Tony Awards showing (11 nominations but just one win).

But somewhere along the way, Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray’s pop musical has worked out the kinks, found its groove and settled comfortably into itself.

You can pick Alice Walker’s popular Georgia-born tale to pieces if you want to — and believe me, I have — but the show that opened last night at the Fox Theatre feels like the musical it was meant to be.

For the next 2 1/2 weeks, the story of Celie and her sprawling circle of intimates will be as rapturously clucked about as the arrival of Shug Avery at Harpo’s juke-joint.

A good deal of the hooting and hollering will be a tribute to the knockout cast, featuring Jeannette Bayardelle as the shy and retiring Celie; original cast member Felicia P. Fields as the indomitable Sofia; and Atlanta native Stu James as Sofia’s husband, Harpo. (Angela Robinson plays sultry Shug, Rufus Bonds Jr. is the mean and abusive Mister, and former American Idol contestant LaToya London is Celie’s sister, Nettie.)

The backbone of the story is Celie’s awakening — from a so-called ugly young girl into a confident and self-accepting town matriarch. It is remarkable to see the eyes of this tired, awkward and socially uncomfortable woman slowly open to the possibilities of love. Bayardelle calibrates this transformation by flashing glimpses of Celie’s adorable comic underside, her latent sexual hunger and, since this is a musical, her vocal charisma, which can turn sweet lullabies and scorching belts into sublime theatrical moments.

In a nicely detailed performance, Bonds creates a hard-nosed, whip-cracking and abusive Mister, who wrestles with Celie’s curse in a thunderous, Mephistopholean scene. Robinson’s Shug is funny, glamorous, entertaining and wisely low-key, so as not to steal the thunder of the other strong women characters. But her take is not particularly fresh or original. Kinda just the same old Shug.

Though Celie’s relationships with Shug and Mister splinter off into solitude, the fire and spark of Harpo and Sofia never go out. Fields, who has been involved with this project from the get-go, delivers a Sofia that is as salty and irrascible as ever. Recalling the legendary Ethel Waters in her prime, Fields cracks up the audience, reduces it to tears, then washes away the pain with laughter. Celie’s the lead, but Sofia is the soul of “The Color Purple.”

James steps into Harpo’s britches with a sweet, tender masculinity. When Sofia rails at his father, you can see Harpo’s impulse to protect her, and the couple’s sexual chemistry just gets better over time. James’ Harpo sings wonderfully, gyrates his hips like he means it and even takes a little spanking from Sofia.

At the end of the day, does this pop-music pastiche still sound saccharine and the lyrics cliched? Is Walker’s wildy convoluted plot still resolved with a few phone calls and flashbacks whipped together by librettist Marsha Norman? Does the Africa scene still feel like it belongs in “The Lion King”?

Yes, yes and yes.

But this ensemble is so good, Donald Byrd’s choreography is so energetic and joyous, the emotional high notes so real that you forgive the flaws.

Life, as Celie discovers, isn’t perfect. Neither is musical theater. Maturity takes time, and requires a capacity for love and forgiveness. I’m happy to report that “The Color Purple” has flowered into a thing of beauty. It feels organic, moves fluidly and plays like clockwork.

The 411: Through Aug 3. Presented by Theater of the Stars, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E, Midtown. 404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com

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The [Insert Word Here] That Changed the World

By Phil Kloer | Wednesday, July 16, 2008, 08:17 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

I love grandiose subtitles. In recent years, non-fiction books, particularly popular history, have gone a little nuts with subtitles that make extravagant claims.

“Cicada!: The Startling Untold Story of the Amazing Insect That Made Us Who We Are Today”

“Stooges: The Comedy Trio That Forever Changed What It Means to Laugh and Be Human.”

I made those up, but you know what I mean.

So I laughed the other day when I read Jim Auchmutey’s interview in the AJC with David Maraniss. Maraniss is touring in support of his book “Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World.” There have been several reviews that have said this is a well-researched and well-written book, highly recommended, but that the 1960 Olympics did not really change the world.

Which led to this exchange.

Q: That subtitle —- “The Olympics That Changed the World” —- sounds rather grandiose. Is it justified?

A: That really wasn’t my title, but you can make the argument. I was trying to write about a moment when you could see the modern world coming into focus.

I admire Maraniss’ honesty. It wasn’t his title. Reading between the lines, I would guess an agent, editor or publisher thought the title needed some extra oomph, hence “Changed the World.” Anyway, an author who can be honest like that in an interview is one who can be trusted in his writing, so I’m adding “Rome 1960” to my list of books I need to read this summer.

In the meantime, Maraniss is in town today, July 16. He’s speaking and signing at 8 tonight at the Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry. $10, reservation required, so don’t show up like some schlub, OK? 404 814 4000 for more information.

Maybe it will change your world.

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