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Thursday, November 6, 2008
‘Swimming Upstream’ at True Colors Theatre
Theater review. Grade: A-. Through Nov. 16. True Colors Theatre at 14th Street Playhouse. 404-733-5000, truecolorstheatrecompany.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Tuesday, America saw political theater on a grand and epic scale. On Wednesday night, Atlanta witnessed the birth of a major new piece of theatrical storytelling.
“Swimming Upstream” — written by a group of New Orleans women insistent on having their say about Hurricane Katrina — is the poetic equivalent of a breached levee. What begins as a flood of raw human emotion becomes a source of healing, transcendence and new beginnings.
Created by New Orleans’ Ashe Cultural Arts Center under the guidance of “Vagina Monologues” author Eve Ensler, “Swimming Upstream” pours a dark, heavy-freighted topic through a sieve of music, poetry and personal reminiscence — and reduces it down to the essence of sorrow, laughter and truth. If you come to theater expecting a lot of name-calling and finger-pointing, you will leave feeling happily purged of anger and vitriol.
Presented by Atlanta’s True Colors Theatre and directed by Kenny Leon, “Swimming Upstream” pairs A-list actresses Phylicia Rashad, Jasmine Guy and Shirley Knight with a powerhouse sampling of New Orleans talent, including vocalist Troi Bechet and spoken-word dynamo Asali Njeri DeVan.
Accompanied by musical director JMichael, the ten women sit in chairs, use hand-held mikes and read from scripts in a style similar to another fact-based theater project, “The Exonerated.” The performers sport individualized outfits of black, festooned with bright pink scarves, while a trio of singers (Willa Bost, Leslie Blackshear-Smith and Michaela Harrison) wear white.
Based on a year’s worth of workshops at the Ashe center, the stories are rendered as a pastiche of composite characters and voices — with Rashad being a sort of community matriarch and neighborhood grandma; Knight a flakey, yoga-addicted older white woman and DeVan a bereaved young widow who is pushed over the edge by the bureaucracy.
Looking over her reading glasses and speaking in an authentic drawl, Rashad — who never gives anything less than an impeccable performance — is a figure of wisdom and honesty. Her character might not have chosen all of her neighbors, she says, but come to think about, she would have chosen most of them.
Guy, whose gifts may have been overshadowed by her TV career, is a dazzling presence — glamorous to look at, an earthy, raspy-voiced singer and delightful as a character who rediscovers prayer by dancing around her living room. “I can pray — just not in prayer position.”
DeVan delivers some of the most blistering poetry of the evening; her speech about the $4,000 permit is heart-rending. And Bechet, for her part, alternates between swinging jazz, smoldering soul and the blues.
Finally, I can’t say enough good things about Knight, whose credits include a Tony, three Emmies and two Academy Award nominations. She comes across like a combination of Jessica Tandy and Meryl Streep, consistently funny and full of truth.
Ensler, who has turned “Vagina Monologues” into a global phenomenon focused on fighting violence against women and girls, knows how to turn visceral emotion into the stuff of great theater. If you’re looking for a way to prolong the high of this week’s historic presidential election, “Swimming Upstream” is the ticket.
One final note: Rashad leaves the cast after Sunday’s performances to fulfull a previous professional commitment. Rashad’s part will played by Guy, and film actress Kerry Washington will step into Guy’s chair.
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