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‘In the Red and Brown Water’ @ Alliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B+
Something dreamy and magical is brewing beneath the surface of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “In the Red and Brown Water.”
You know this because his characters sometimes talk funny, as if an invisible spirit is telling them what to say, and because their names dance with the musicality of some exotic place.
Oya, Shango, Elegba and Ogun: These aren’t just regular kids from Louisiana.
Beautifully choregraphed and directed by Tina Landau, “In the Red and Brown Water” finds McCraney — winner of the Alliance Theatre’s Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition — exhilarating in the hothouse sensuality of Yoruban mythology and Federico Garcia Lorca.
You won’t find a more steamy and erotic tale than that of track star Oya (Kianné Muschett), whose heart is divided between the sweetly spiritual Ogun (Andre Holland) and the muscle-bound Shango (Rodrick Covington). It’s a no-brainer that this barren young woman ought to stick with the hard-working Ogun, but in love and literature, things never run as smoothly as they ought.
Oya’s fate is foretold by street urchin Elegba (Jon Michael Hill), who has a criminal addiction to sweets and tells Oya’s mother (Chinái J. Hardy) about a mysterious dream in which her daughter is submerged in water. Mama Moja thinks Elegba just has sex on the brain. He does — in ways that may surprise you — and chocolate, too.
In addition to his devastating love triangle, what McCraney does so well is create an entire community — from the white shopkeeper (Daniel May) to the town gossips (Sharisa Whatley and Carra Patterson) to Oya’s bawdy Aunt Elegua (Heather Alicia Simms).
Happily, there is not a weak link in the cast. Muschett is consistently good, and the scene in which the stuttering Ogun wiggles his fingers to describe the sound of Oya’s running is exquisite. “Like crickets,” he says, “but more beautiful.”
Landau’s particular strength is to find a physical vocabulary that precisely matches McCraney’s shimmering poetry and playful experimentalism. She never clutters the stage with unnecessary props and costumes, and builds on the muscular athleticism of the cast. From such simple touches as pouring water, makeshift drumming and a cappella spirituals, she supplies a lovely and organic soundscape.
A couple of minor quibbles. Despite its claim to a Louisiana setting, “In the Red and Brown Water” seems to reside more in some mythical place of the imagination than the American South. And in hewing so closely to his Yoruban source material, McCraney’s story seems to lose focus at the end. We aren’t quite prepared for the shocking conclusion.
An original talent with an ear that is finely attuned to the rhythms of the heart, McCraney delivers a play that is unlike anything else on an Atlanta stage. It’s pure liquid poetry.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Through Feb. 24. $25-$35. Alliance Theatre, Hertz Stage, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-733-5000, alliancetheatre.org
BOTTOM LINE: A young writer dips from a deep well.
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