VIEWPOINTS – The mostly splendid revivals of Lynn Nottage’s BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK and Athol Fugard’s BOESMAN AND LENA light up Signature’s winter season

With last night’s opening of Athol Fugard’s Boesman and Lena, Signature Theater Conpany now has a pair of mostly splendid Off-Broadway revivals under its roof at the Pershing Square Signature Center, continuing the theater company’s near impeccable track record of thoughtfully revisiting plays by some of our most treasured playwrights.

Zainab Jah and Sahr Ngaujah in Signature Theatre Company's revival of "Boesman and Lena" by Athol Fugard. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Zainab Jah and Sahr Ngaujah in Signature Theatre Company’s revival of “Boesman and Lena” by Athol Fugard. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Boesman and Lena joins Signature’s revival of Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage’s terrific 2011 play By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (RECOMMENDED), which has been running for a few weeks now. The play is a pointed but hugely enjoyable examination of black actresses in early Hollywood, particularly as it relates to a seminal – albeit fictitious – film entitled “The Belle of New Orleans”, which launched the film career of one Vera Stark in the role of a southern nanny. Ms. Stark has had to play many roles in her life, including maid to her eventual costar in the aforementioned film. That both society and her dream career have eclipsed her true potential and identity is the subject of Ms. Nottage’s play. Depicting Vera’s circumstances just prior to “Belle”, the first act is unadulterated farce that’s handled with confidence and an infectious comedic flair; it was a joy to watch. However, the play’s second act is reminiscent of Act Two of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, both in its awkward satire of contemporary arts and academic circles and its jarring, notoriously problematic shift in tone. To compensate, director Kamilah Forbes has chosen to forcefully push some of the play’s satirical elements, at times detracting from the bite of Ms. Nottage’s script. Nevertheless, Vera is delectably played by veteran DC-area actress and Woolly Mammoth favorite Jessica Frances Duke (I saw her premiere acclaimed plays such as Robert O’Hara’s Bootycandy and Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed at the Woolly before they arrived in New York). Despite the production’s slight unevenness, Ms. Duke did not disappoint.

Jessica Dukes Frances and Jenni Barber in Signature Theatre Company's revival of "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" by Lynn Nottage. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Jessica Dukes Frances and Jenni Barber in Signature Theatre Company’s revival of “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” by Lynn Nottage. Photo by Joan Marcus.

As mentioned, the other play currently being revived by Signature this winter is Mr. Fugard’s Boesman and Lena (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which depicts an older, destitute, and aggressively bickering South African couple. Refugees in their own country (out of force and/or desperation), they’ve restlessly and endlessly roamed countryside and shanties, losing sense of themselves in the process. Mr. Fugard’s play registers as a cross between the existential angst of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and the venomous battle of the sexes that is Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The first half of the play is a steady slow burn – which some may find tedious – that’s heavy on atmosphere and limited on plot. But when an unforced interloper enters the scene, deep-set emotions are triggered, resulting in a series of confrontational scenes that combust. The production is directed by Yaël Farber with a solemn, bleak severity that befits the play. In the central roles of Boesman and Lena, Sahr Ngaujah and Zainab Jah, respectively, are superb, paradoxically delivering their lines with lilting musicality and furious intensity. It all makes for riveting theater.

 

BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK
Off-Broadway, Play
Signature Theatre Company
2 hours, 20 minutes (with one intermission)
Through March 10

BOESMAN AND LENA
Off-Broadway, Play
Signature Theatre Company
2 hours (with no intermission)
Through March 17

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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