For its production of Dael Orlandersmith’s Yellowman, the Milwaukee Rep has transformed the Steimke Theatre into a bleak and powerful landscape worthy of Samuel Beckett. Scenic Designer Mimi Lien’s environment looks like the buckling deck of a ship in mid-capsize, tilted expanses of burnished wood stained by pools of black tar. It transforms the usually intimate Steimke into a vast, almost infinite space, a place more suited to the tragic, machinations of the gods than the love story of two people from South Carolina.
But Orlandersmith’s beautifully sad play aspires to the realm of Greek tragedy, so the expansive setting is apt. A touching love story of innocence overwhelmed by a powerful darkness, it’s a play you will not soon forget.
Since its premiere over a decade ago, much has been made of the racial politics of Yellowman, and it certainly is a courageous exploration of racism within the African-American community. But the doomed romance between dark-skinned Alma and light-skinned Eugene is not simply an illustration or polemic, any more than Romeo and Juliet is about the politics of Verona.
Yellowman, like Shakespeare, creates a world around its two vividly drawn characters. And it does so with an ear for poetry and the musical rhythms of that world – here, the rural coastal country of South Carolina. Using only two actors, it tells Gene and Alma’s story from the innocence of childhood through their blossoming romance. It’s told mostly as a story – the characters speak directly to us, a practice that can often create distance between the story and the audience. But Orlandersmith’s language is so vivid and warm that she creates an instant bond between us and her creations.
But no playwright can go it alone. Director May Adrales plays this music with great intelligence and sensitivity, and she has two terrific actor-musicians to work with. Erica Bradshaw is a warm and engaging presence, drawing the audience into her character’s story and life with friendly ease. Ryan Quinn’s Gene has a wide-eyed embrace of his world that makes his love of Alma all the more powerful and endearing. And both characters have the technical facility to step into supporting characters – family members and friends from their small South Carolina town – creating vividly textured scenes that move the story to its tragic conclusion.
Yellowman will make you think about racism, but like all great theater, it touches something much more universal as well. It’s a play (and production) brimming with joy and pain that reveals both the best and worst of humanity. If that’s what you want in the theater, it will deliver.
Photos by Michael Brosilow.
