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     Rondall Moderator Username: Rondall Post Number: 26 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
There is a fantastic play by poet/writer/song writer/composer/activist Mari Evans playing at the "eta Theatre" in Chicago: etaCREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION 7558 South Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL 60619 (773) 752 - 3955 (773) 752-8727 (FAX) The play is a musical love story based on Zora Neale Hurston's classic novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching God". It has been selling out and they have extended it for a extra week. I am working on getting permission to reprint the review by Hedy Weiss that was in the Chicago Sun Times June 29, 2004. "Eyes" Thursday, June 24 - Sunday, August 13, 2004 Book and Music by Mari Evans Directed by Runako Jahi Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 P.M. Sunday at 3:00 P.M. & 7:00 P.M. | ||
| Rondall Moderator Username: Rondall Post Number: 27 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: |
Got that permission slip back for the review: Courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times 'Eyes' sets Hurston's classic to music June 29, 2004 BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic Advertisement Productions of musicals are few and very far between at ETA Creative Arts. So the arrival of "Eyes," Mari Evans' richly evocative adaptation of "Their Eyes Were Watching God" -- the 1937 novel by that star writer of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston -- is an event worth celebrating. This show, created in 1979 and only rarely produced in the interim, has a charm and a personality that neatly echo Hurston's sassy, highly individualistic style and her use of the black idiom. And the young and gifted actors at ETA, under the direction of Runako Jahi, display a real feel for the writer's long-gone world and larger-than-life characters. In addition, Evans has written a delightful and often mesmerizing score -- drawing on the blues and lightly torchy jazz and many other styles that neatly match the story's time and setting. Unfortunately, the amplification system that might have lifted this production to a more professional level, and lent support to its actors, was not functioning on opening night, although plans are said to be under way to get it working by next weekend. Hurston's story, told in flashback, is really an early feminist quest for freedom, even if its central character, Janie Crawford (Alana Arenas, wonderfully moody and droll) would not have used such a term. A sort of alter ego for Hurston herself -- and a woman with a fierce streak of independence and curiosity about the world at large -- Janie grows up in a poor rural black town in Florida, under the watchful and worried eye of her ex-slave grandmother, Nanny (Caterria Brown, playing far beyond her years, and doing it with panache). She eventually manages to escape the place, but when life gets really rough, she returns home. Along the way she marries three very different men, and in the process of dealing with each of them she discovers herself. While Janie is still a teenager, Nanny pressures her to wed a crude but relatively well-to-do old farmer, Logan Killicks (a solid comic turn by Edward S. Rebb). Security is all for Nanny -- who sees love as both a luxury and a trap. And while Janie wants romance, she eventually relents, heeding Nanny's warning that "it ain't in a man to kiss your foot for long." Janie's life with Killicks -- a man who considers a wife to be on equal footing with his mules -- is no fun, and she is rebellious and sullen. She also is easily enticed by a newly arrived stranger, Jody Starks (neatly played by James Earl Jones II, who sings the powerful song "Land Is Power"). He showers her with attention at the start, and proves to be a real go-getter in business and politics, eventually founding a whole new town. But he expects Janie to be the dutiful, silent helpmate and second-class citizen in their marriage, and that's not a role she can tolerate. Nevertheless, she remains married for nearly 20 years, until Starks dies. Then, for the first time, she finds herself alone. Not for long, however, because along comes Tea Cake (the loose and easy Terrance Watts), a man almost young enough to be her son, and as independent and restless as she is. A seasonal farmworker who takes her hunting and fishing in the Everglades, and who dabbles in gambling from time to time, he is her unruly soul mate. And for the first time in her life she is content. Of course, the fates have other things in store for Janie; they come in the form of a hurricane, a rabid dog and a shotgun. Swirling around Janie, and playing a slew of roles, are several other expert performers, including that dynamo dancer-actor Rueben D. Echoles; the tall, gangly Jeniel M. Smith, who plays Janie's longtime friend (and does a knockout job with her solo song about "a little black magic"); the very stylish, clarion-voiced Jesse Dean Hicks, and the single-named Carrie (a dancer of tremendous allure) and Shelley Woodward, who morph into everything from town matrons and flappers to windstorms, with Kanika Sago's costumes adding spice. Choreographer Geri Williams has made delightful contributions throughout. And the three-piece band -- musical director-percussionist Keith "1" Austin, Mahmoud Khan (keyboards) and Dexter Sims (bass) -- are bound to sound even better once the sound system gets up and running. There are moments, especially in the show's poorly blocked final scenes, when the momentum flags, and some editing of the script would be helpful. ETA also should start paying more attention to technical and design work. But this musical is a real find, and with more resources behind it, "Eyes" could have a real future. A footnote about Hurston: Though she was all the rage in New York in the 1930s, by the 1950s she was working as a maid in a Florida hotel. She died in 1960, and was buried in an unmarked grave -- only to be "rediscovered" in the 1970s by novelist Alice Walker. |
