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| Maya Burton and Kamaria Hallums-Harris in Is God Is (Chris Bennion) |
Is God Is
Washington Ensemble Theatre and The Hansberry Project
Through September 23, 2019
It’s not likely that playwright Aleshea Harris is that
familiar with local Book-It Repertory Theatre, but her dialogue-as-narration in
her play, Is God Is, is strikingly like the “Book-It style” we’ve gotten
used to. Twin sisters Racine (‘Cine) and Anaia (‘Naia) describe each other to
the audience as they discuss a letter that has arrived from God. It’s from
their mother, who they believed was dead, and from whom they have not heard for
at least 18 years!
They describe their lives growing up in horrific-sounding
foster care as they try to cope with the sudden news that their mother wants to
see them. They speak of her as God because she “made” them, so therefore, they
are beholden to her in the way they’d be to God.
They determine they need to go see her. The letter comes
from a rest home in “Oscarville, MS/AL/FL/TX/TN/AR/KY, Dirty South” followed by
a zip code so long that you lose track of the numbers. This helps put the
journey on track to be “mythic” in nature. Outside of or bigger than real life.
When they arrive, they find their mother covered in burns,
completely disfigured. They revisit their history, as God describes why they
all have burns on their bodies and she describes their father setting her on
fire as the toddler girls watch. God then commands them to find him and make
him “dead, real dead. Lots of blood is fine.”
Preview information about the play describes that Harris was
inspired by “Spaghetti Westerns, contemporary myths, stories of black women.
Also the futility and desperation that comes from cyclical violence, suggesting
that stories of revenge feel so good and so bad.”
A warning from Washington Ensemble Theatre says, “This play
is bloody and brutal. It is harsh, harsh, harsh. Please be advised that the
content includes spousal abuse, violence, overdose, murder, death, the use of
fog and strobe lights, and rocks in socks.”
Kamaria Hallums-Harris and ‘Cine and Maya Burton
as ‘Naia do solid work in these complex roles. Burton has a clearer path
because her character is dubbed “the emotional one.” Hallums-Harris is more
forceful, but also less nuanced. The play is directed by Lava Alapai,
from Portland, who directs at a kind of breakneck speed and it feels like a lot
of subtlety gets lost that way.
Initially, the set intrigues with a complex vision of
various rocky levels with horizontal stick curtains that get pulled up to
reveal or blur areas, and a lot of cloth sticking out that makes the front look
extremely poverty-stricken. As the play unfolds, the intricacies of Lex
Marcos’ design seem to overpower the script. It seems intentional that the
audience can see “dead bodies” get up and walk away, but it’s not clear what
the intention is for.
More successful is the beautiful scar work which may be
credited to costumer Ricky German, who appears to use nylon stockings (my
guess) to create burned skin, and a sheer orange cloth covering for Laura
Steele as the mother who is completely obscured under burns. Brace Evans
plays the father, Charles Antoni as Riley and Tre Scott as Scotch
are 16-year-old twin half-brothers.
The allegorical aspect of Greek myth is an uneasy footing
for the play. Revenge on the father seems completely fitting, since he severely
hurt all of them. But extending that revenge to the rest of the family, while
often fitting the Greek mythology model, seems less reasonable and less
justified when kicking the time period into our current century.
Some entertainment nods, like to the Blues Brothers, hip
hop, and especially to The Andy Griffith Show (Evans has to whistle that whole
theme song), are meant to be funny, but this iteration is so grim that it seems
impossible to laugh at it. It appears the script might want us to feel relief
for the twins that they get their desired revenge, but that wasn’t what I felt
on the way out. I just felt drained.
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