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Monday, Dec 01, 2008
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ACT's The Mojo and The Sayso provide stirring, edgy family drama |
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| ACT's The Mojo and The Sayso provide stirring, edgy family drama | ||
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by Rajkhet Dirzhud-Rashid -
SGN A&E Writer The Mojo and the Sayso Directed by Valerie Curtis-Newman Starring Tracy Michelle Hughes, Lindsay Smiling, Jose Rufino Timothy McCuen Piggee ACT August 31-September 30 After watching ACT's emotionally charged family drama, The Mojo and The Sayso, my friends and I had differing points of view, but we all agreed that actor Timothy McCuen Piggee's stunning portrayal of a shifty Black minister was the high point of the play. Particularly the surreal 'striptease' he does to the words of son, 'Blood's' (Jose Rufino) description of the minister's many misdeeds. And even though, at times, the show seemed a bit confusing, or the acting a bit uneven (which I'll forgive, because it was opening night when we saw the play), we still liked Mojo. The play, directed by skilled director Valerie Curtis-Newman, details in a very 'slice of life' fashion how a mother, father and their son (Tracy Michelle Hughes, Lindsay Smiling and Rufino) all deal with the death of their younger son. This son apparently was killed by police, in a case of mistaken identity, but the facts around the death are still cloudy to the mother, who keeps insisting that her husband (who was there when the son was shot), tell her all of the details. He, afraid of her judgment, instead puts all of his energy into putting together an old car in their living room, from spare, junkyard parts. She lights candles, and recites Bible verses, he tinkers on the car, so that they seem like planets in orbit rather than a married couple. Into this established ritualistic battle of wills comes their other son, who has changed his name to 'Blood', in his own way of trying to recover some of the power he feels has been lost, by both he and his father, after his brother's death. The scene is one of the more powerful in the play, with this angry young Black man entering the ramshackle set depicting a house in disorder, not through a door, but through previously broken windows. He enters like a burglar, challenging a faceless attacker, but in the bold way he enters, with gun in hand, scaring his already tense parents instead. Then we, the audience, get more teases about how the other son died, as the father is pressured by both son and wife to speak the truth of that night. Unfortunately, after the slimey minister's 'strip show', the climactic moment of the father revealing the events of his younger son's death came as a bit of letdown for myself and my friends. I guess we expected something more extreme, or more of an emotional bloodletting than what the actors show us. Still, it was opening night, so maybe by the time you see it, (and you should), the buildup will have a little more 'oompth'. I also have to add that even with the actors needing more fire in their performances, Mojo is a beautifully done piece of playcraft and it definitely holds the interest. For more information on tickets and times, go to www.acttheatre.org or call 206-292-7676. |
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