by Joel Elkins~
In an old episode of M*A*S*H, after hearing that a patient hailed from a small rural town in Ohio, Hawkeye Pierce proceeds to describe in detail the town’s main street, from the diner that serves the world’s greasiest french fries to the auto dealership that puts up banners whenever the new models have arrived. “You’ve been there?” the patient asked incredulously. “Nah,” Hawkeye answers, “I grew up in the same small town in Maine.”
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf, which played on Broadway in the 70′s and is now been revived at the Lyric Theatre, harps on this well-worn theme that this country is divided not geographically, but racially, sexually and socio-economically, that a poor black woman has more in common with other poor black women halfway across the country than she does with someone rich, white and/or male in her own city. Amazingly, this play about “colored girls” was produced at the urging of, and directed by, JC Gafford, a white male.
Playwright Ntozake Shange presents stories of “colored girls” from all over the country – New York, Houston, Baltimore, New Orleans, Los Angeles – through dance and poetic story-telling. Despite their superficial heterogeneity, these women share more similarities than differences, including an apparent love-hate relationship both with men and their own coloredness. “I used to live in the world,” one woman relates, “but I moved to Harlem, and now my universe is six blocks.” Another woman describes the dusty atmosphere of the south as if “God were wiping his feet on her face.” A third observes that being “sorry and black is redundant.”
Each of the various vignettes which make up the production is presented by one of seven talented cast members, each donning a different color: Red (Darlene Bel Grayson), Purple (Ciji Michelle Campbell), Yellow (Mystie Galloway), Orange (Monica P. Quinn), Blue (Yvette Saunders), Green (Samiyah Swann) and Brown (Nia Witts). Not only does this costuming provide for colorful dance numbers; it suggests a deeper message to the play and its enigmatic title. The rainbow represents not only the general beauty in the world, but also the rich diversity inherent in each black woman. The program cover depicts six amorphous female figures, each a different color of the rainbow, flowing gently together to create a more defined brown-skinned woman. The implication is: just as brown is made up of all the colors, so too a whole kaleidoscope of backgrounds and characteristics make up the modern African American woman.
The vignettes, some monologues, some full dance numbers, take place in the 1960s and depict this black female kaleidoscope, from the relatively innocent description of losing one’s virginity in the back of a car after a school dance to the horrifying account of having one’s children dropped off a balcony by an angry and abusive ex-boyfriend. They seem to get more intense as the one-act play drags on, with each performer attempting to out-emotion the previous.
It is powerful theater, but the cavalcade of increasing anguish and dispondency doesn’t allow much time for the audience to connect or process before being thrust into another heart-wrenching piece. Speaking as an un-colored un-girl, by the end of the night, I didn’t feel uplifted but just wiped out and guilty.
For Colored Girls plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm through March 17, 2012.
The Lyric Theatre is located at 520 N. La Brea Avenue, between Beverly and Melrose
Ticket prices: $20.00
Reservations online www.plays411.com/forcoloredgirls, www.LAStageAlliance.com, www.Goldstar.com, or by calling (323) 960-1055.
