Theater
THE DESIRE
Presented by SistaStyle Productions Through Sept. 16 at Darkhorse Theater
The second offering in this year’s Shades of Black Theatre Festival comes courtesy of SistaStyle Productions, an active newcomer in Nashville’s African American community theater scene. Jackie Alexander’s play The Desire recently closed off-Broadway, and this mounting is the work’s first regional production since the New York engagement.
A mix of social drama and sitcom, The Desire unfolds in a dozen scenes over two conventionally constructed acts. The main character is a Long Island lawyer named Ty, who is on the verge of accepting a partnership at a big Manhattan law firm.
Desire-able Left to right: Gary Douglas, Molly Hoekstra, Mary McCallum, Darius Willis, Amanda Bailey and David Chattam
At first, we find him juggling relationships with his fiancée Angela, a TV producer, and a white girlfriend from his not-too-distant past. But suddenly, his cousin Willie enters the scene. Barely a week after Hurricane Katrina, Willie has made the trek from New Orleans to Ty’s beach house in the Hamptons. What Willie wants (and what he represents from Ty’s past) becomes the chief mystery element in the drama.
Yet the romantic complications—with Willie often playing a key role as comic foil—are also a focus of the play. They are both a source of laughter (by way of farcical contrivances in the action) and serious reflection on love’s uncanny ability to cause pain.
Director Jacqueline Holmes, an MTSU theater professor, keeps the production moving, with each of the many scenes ending in intriguing little cliffhangers. Playwright Alexander has worked in a subtext of contemporary sociology, which explores the divide between African Americans who have “made it” and those who are still fighting the old battles of poverty, crime and life in the projects. These topics are handled thoughtfully. After the laughter has died down, they become the issues that the arrogant attorney Ty must grapple with.
David Chattam plays Ty. He’s well cast and works the bravado and eventual confusion of his character to good effect. Mary McCallum is the levelheaded and sensitive Angela, and she’s consistent throughout, whether dealing with her suspicions about Ty’s lack of commitment or extending her friendship to the down-and-out Willie.
Amanda Bailey is the booty-call girlfriend, and she makes a convincing transition from frivolity to frustration in the wake of Ty’s misleading overtures. Gary Douglas and Molly Hoekstra portray Ty’s law partner and wife, respectively. They are supposed to be funny characters—upper-crust, limousine liberals who embrace Willie and his supposed pathos with knee-jerk predictability. Unfortunately, Douglas and Hoekstra give quirky and unpolished performances. We sometimes chuckle at their dialogue. But mostly, their self-conscious acting draws the wrong kind of attention.
Darius Willis, in the pivotal role of Willie, is much more successful. Despite some rough edges in his acting—he could profit from a firmer directorial hand—Willis revealed an engaging stage presence. There was energy in his movement and passion in his vocal delivery. He was a lot of fun to watch.
Despite an imperfection or two, The Desire is worthy theater. Indeed, it proved to be that rare kind of play that offers both comic diversion and intelligent social commentary at the same time.
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