When you see the name Pearl Cleage flashing on the giant marquee outside the Alliance Theatre, you can be sure that there is a noteworthy event in the house.
In recent days, the blinking sign has almost appeared to gasp as it spells out the title of Cleage’s new play: “The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years.” One can only imagine that the box-office switchboard has been just as busy. Cleage, after all, is a literary figure of some celebrity — both a best-selling novelist with an Oprah Book Club title and a celebrated playwright whose “Flyin’ West” and “Blues for an Alabama Sky” have been produced all over America.
And now there’s “Nacirema,” a frothy parlor-room comedy about a pair of strong-willed Southern matriarchs who are determined to match up their grandchildren so that their illustrious bloodlines — and reign on Montgomery society — will continue.
It’s 1964. But Grace Dunbar (Trezana Beverley) and Catherine Adams Green (Andrea Fry) have little interest in bus boycotts, bloody marches or the young upstart from Atlanta named Martin Luther King. As these ladies make final adjustments on ball gowns, trouble is sure to be lurking in the form of a snoopy New York Times reporter (played by Jasmine Guy) and the daughter of a former servant (Tonia Jackson).
Directed by Susan V. Booth and showcasing Susan E. Mickey’s glorious period costumes and Peter Hicks’ palatial set, “Nacirema” seems to take its cues from Harlequin romances, Hollywood potboilers (think “Stella Dallas”) and the formulaic writing style of TV sitcoms. Its over-the-top performances, grand scale and fashion panache are sure to delight and entertain audiences. But “Nacirema” is a very slender offering — a soap opera, really, about the follies of a society where appearance is everything and breaches of etiquette are to be swept under the rug or hushed up with bribes.
While it has been billed as a romantic comedy, “Nacirema” is less about the love affairs of debutante Gracie Dunbar (Naima Carter Russell), her childhood friend Bobby Green (Kevin Alan Daniels) and third wheel Lillie Campbell Jackson (Karan Kendrick) than it is about the schemes of busy-body grandmas. Beverley — who won a Tony Award for the 1977 Broadway production of “For Colored Girls…” — lays it on pretty thick as the grand doyenne who insists on having her way. She’s a bit too campy for me. Fry, on the other hand, is absolutely hilarious as the dopey, fur-draped sidekick entrusted with the details of Grace’s little cover-up.
As Grace’s widowed daughter-in-law, Marie, Chinai J. Hardy is a regal, quiet beauty. Russell is winning as Gracie, who wants to run off to New York and become a writer. As the daughter of the former Dunbar maid who crashes the party, Jackson is a hoot. Though Guy gets top billing, she has one of the smallest parts in the story, and plays it with refreshing naturalness. (The other minor roles belong to Daniels, the only man in this chick fest, and Neda Spears, who plays the virtually silent maid.)
Like the tiny goblets of sherry that the characters keep swilling, “Nacirema" is a pleasant aperitif. The historical backdrop remains very much in the shadows, and the promised banquet never comes.
Theater review
“The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years”
Grade: C+
8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. 7:30 p.m. Sundays. (No 2:30 p.m. show Oct. 30). Through Nov. 14. $20-$50. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. 404-733-5000, alliance.org
Bottom line: Light comedy with civil rights backdrop.
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