Newspaper Page Text
Review
Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery
Miss Tom (Carol Mitchell-Leon) and Daughter (Marguerite Hannah) go
fishing in Horizon Theatre Company's World Premiere of Shakin'the Mess
Outta Misery..
Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery is a first
effort from Atlanta playwright Shay
Youngblood. Based on Youngblood's short
stories about a young black girl's coming of
age in the 1960's, Shakin'" is the story of a
girl conceived in hatred but who is raised up
out of the misery that shadowed and ended
her mother's life. Partly autobiographical,
the play focuses on the "Big Mamas," the
wise women who mothered the writer after
her "blood" mother died when Youngblood
was two years old.
The Big Mamas serve as "Daughter's"
landmarks-gauges by which she measures
the unfolding truths about life. In each of
her encounters with the women the girl is
given a story-old and rich, fermented by
time and memories-which helps the girl
along in her journey toward adulthood.
From Ms. Tom, who has lived with her
lesbian lover for 36 years, she learns about
the many possibilities of love. She learns
from Miss Corine, who greased her hair and
her spirit, to "dream, even though it ain’t
gonna be easy." And from her grandmother,
Big Mama, she learns about choices-a
choice to suffer through misery or a choice
to "shake the mess outta misery.”
And Aunt Mae, Big Mama's independent
sister, shows Daughter that you're never too
old to wear your high heels and flashy red
wig.
The all-female cast does an incredible
job of bringing the mamas to life. Dialogue
flows naturally and brought big laughs from
the audience on opening night who must
have been caught up in memories of their
own Big Mamas. Glenda Dickerson,
director of some of America’s most
renowned black productions, has done a
fine job of adapting Youngblood's fiction to
the stage.
Although the ending was a little too pat
given the complexities of the women's lives,
Shakin’ is well worth the ticket price and
sure to lift your spirits.
-Diane Stillwater
Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery runs
through December 23rd at Horizon
Theater, 1083 Austin Avenue, in the Little
5 points Community Center. Performances
are Thursday & Friday at 8:00 PM,
Saturday at 5:30 & 8:30 PM, and Sundays
at 5:00 PM. Additional performances Dec.
20 and 21 at 8:00 PM. Call 584-7450for
ticket prices and reservations.
Review
For Love and For Life II
For Love and for Life 11, by Rebecca
Ranson et al., is theater at its most loosely
structured: Part celebration, part wake, part
soap opera, and part musical. According to
Ranson, she did not actually write the play;
rather, it is a collaboration between herself and
the 37-member cast. It would have been no
surprise had such a multi-authored, hybrid
work been a sloppy mess. And yet the
It's possible no single author could have
achieved the sort of panoramic view of gay
life we get in this play. There are both leather
and lace, there are activists and conservatives,
there are boys and girls from next door and
boys and girls who look as though they're
from Venus. I was struck as I have seldom
been by the extraordinary variety of persons
included in the catch-all category "gay".
The characters interweave, soap opera
style, through episodes or vignettes, some
funny, others deadly serious. The threat of
AIDS binds the characters into an intricate
nexus of friendships, loves, and alliances.
Though an occasional episode may slip into
the outright syrupy, the next will wrench us
back into brutal reality:
President-elect Bush gets mentioned only
once amid the very few fleeting references to
politics. Ranson seems willing to trust her
audiences to intuit, from the very personal
tragedies depicted, the appalling cruelty of
political indifference.
At nearly three hours, the play cries out for
judicious editing and faster pacing. The show
within the show, a benefit musical revue, is
definitely too long. But although the acting is
conspicuously uneven and the duration
overlong, For Love’s theme of the urgency for
caring among disparate people is clear and
moving.
- Ray Hesse
The Cast of For Love and For Life II.
production comes together remarkably well to
dramatize the need for emotional openness
among gay men and lesbians as they stare into
the terror of AIDS.
Ranson and her SAME cohorts are, in part,
congratulating the diverse elements of our
community for giving a damn about each
other.
DAN R. EASTON
Sharon J. Sanders
Financial Service Specialist
2920 Brandywine Rd. suite 250
Atlanta, Georgia 30341
Phone: (404) 457-0087
p
s
Y
C
H
O
T
H
THEHHPY GROUPS nOW FORmillG
E
R
1549 CLfllRmonT
A
SUITE 108
P
DECATUR, Gfl 30033
Y
(404)373-0278
• Financial Counseling
"*76e tittle 6cui*te&e cvit& 6ip et6ic&
Lynn Manning 639-0913 Little 3 Points
The UniTflHIfln
UIlIVERSflLIST
ihetro minisTRY
Invites gou to its monthly
RIDS HERLinG SERVICE
Sundag, Dacsmbar 11, 1S6B,
1:00pm, I9l l Cliff Valleg mag, IlE.
Atlanta
Counseling G
pastoral care for
People with
HIDS/flHC, their
Motwx frifmds G famili8S '
, Rev. Joe Chancey
Ministry bbb-bibs
Charles Haver, L.M.T.
Therapeutic Massage
LITTLE FIVE POINTS
(404) 524-8221
By appointment only
• Accounting
HLM
• Insurance
• Taxes
services
Page 7