Skip to main content

'Lackawanna Blues' at the Mark Taper Forum

Chris Thomas King and Ruben Santiago-Hudson | Craig Schwartz

The Mark Taper Forum program promises Lackawanna Blues to be "a magical, musical reminiscence."

Ruben Santiago-Hudson is the writer, director, and sole performer of this imaginative, character-driven tale. Accompanying him on stage is typically Chris Thomas King (though in this performance I had the pleasure of watching Daryl Darden) on guitar. The original music featured in the production was composed by Bill Sims Jr., who passed away this year and who the show is dedicated to.

This is not the first time Santiago-Hudson has performed Lackawanna Blues. It originally premiered at The Public Theater in New York in 2001, where it was produced by George C. Wolfe and directed by Loretta Greco. Eighteen years later and Santiago-Hudson has taken the directorial reins himself.

After seeing the show, it only made sense to me that Santiago-Hudson is now his own director. The characters and storytelling are so deeply personal. Were another person to impose their direction, it might have cost the audience some intimacy, a trait this rendition is filled to the brim with.

Lackawanna Blues is about a young boy (Santiago-Hudson) growing up in Lackawanna, New York under the wing of an apartment manager named Miss Rachel, who he affectionately refers to as Nanny. Nanny was known to take in strays. This introduced the young Santiago-Hudson to a wide array of characters. Santiago-Hudson embodied each and every one of these characters with such acute attention to detail that I felt as if I was watching a cast of about 15 people.

The script is funny, heartbreaking, and delightfully meandering. We learn, through Nanny, that kindness and strength are often synonymous. We learn, through a young Santiago-Hudson, what a strong role model can do for a curious child. We are reminded that everyone needs a little bit of help.

Throughout the simultaneously intricate and ease-filled character work that Santiago-Hudson hand delivers the audience on a platter, we are treated to the sounds of Darden on guitar that are both jazzy and nostalgic. Santiago-Hudson periodically chimes in on the harmonica and there is nothing lovelier.

While Santiago-Hudson is tirelessly and beautifully taking on characters throughout the entirety of the show, I would be remiss to fail to mention the way in which Darden listened to and took in his counterpart–so candid, genial, and present.

Lackawanna Blues is a master class in what it means to embody characters. Santiago-Hudson is an artistic powerhouse. The stage is minimally set save for a jagged brick wall that crawls upstage and a lone fan that spins lazily above the two men performing. As an audience member, I didn't need anything else. Darden and Santiago-Hudson provided the rest and then some.

Lackawanna Blues is playing at the Mark Taper Forum until April 21.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Happy Days' at the Mark Taper Forum

Dianne Wiest | Craig Schwartz When life starts to feel monotonous, when you start to feel alone in your marriage, when the earth begins to pile up around you and you fear you might be buried alive, remember the gun in your purse. Happy Days , directed by James Bundy,   is a piece of absurdist theatre by Samuel Beckett. It's the story of Winnie (played by Dianne Wiest) and Willie (played by Michael Rudko) living out their golden years in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. When the curtain lifts, we see Winnie, buried up to her waist in the desolate sand that fills the stage, a beautiful, sad black corset exposed–hinting at what her life used to be before it happened, before she was buried. The sky is piercing blue. The lighting, by Stephen Strawbridge, is clinical, as if we, the audience, are peering into a forbidden display at The Natural History Museum. Winnie begins to babble. "Another heavenly day." She speaks, largely, about how to fill her time–how she mustn'
Post a Comment
Read more

'Pockets' at Hollywood Fringe

Kat Primeau and Molly Dworsky Pockets is a very silly story about the importance of family, the double standard female rulers face, and the root of criminal activity in any given society. The world of Pockets takes place in the kingdom of Crumpeton, a fictional kingdom that celebrates, above all else, crumpets. Ruling while her husband is away is the Duchess (Kat Primeau), mother to the young Bellamina (Molly Dworsky). Bellamina feels neglected by her mother ever since she took over for her father and turns to a life of crime in protest. She becomes Pockets, the new, hot, young pickpocket on the streets of Crumpeton. Her one goal? Make life a little harder for her neglectful mother, the Duchess. Along the way, Bellamina realizes a special gift she possesses (in addition to her natural knack for pickpocketing): the ability to get people to listen to one another. Single-handedly she unites groups of criminals to work for a common goal, and, later, helps her mother to become a bet
24 comments
Read more

'What the Constitution Means to Me' at the Mark Taper Forum

Jocelyn Shek and Maria Dizzia |  Joan Marcus What the Constitution Means to Me is written by Heidi Schreck and directed by Oliver Butler. During its run at the Mark Taper Forum, the role of Heidi is played by Maria Dizzia.  I have only had the pleasure of seeing What the Constitution Means to Me performed by Dizzia, who takes the language of the piece so personally an audience member who didn't know any better, who was unfamiliar with Dizzia and Schreck, might believe the actress to have penned the words herself.  The play (performance piece) follows a young Heidi as she competes to earn scholarship money by giving speeches about the constitution at the American Legion hall in Wenatchee, Washington.  Throughout the evening, Dizzia alternates between teenage Heidi and adult Heidi to discuss the constitution and what it meant to her as a young woman orating for the sake of scholarship money and a grown woman reflecting on how her country's failed to protect generations
Post a Comment
Read more