In the darkly comic mythological fable Cracking Zeus, playwright Christopher T. Hampton brings a vengeful goddess down to earth. But while the play, inventively staged by Reginald L. Douglas, reaches for divine comedy, Spooky Action Theatre’s production remains earthbound.
The angry deity in question is Hera (Nicole Ruthmarie), who deigns to set foot on Earth for the sole purpose of exacting revenge on one of her husband Zeus’ many mistresses by punishing the progeny of their affair.
That mistress would be Momma Jo (Lolita Marie), the founder, owner, treasurer, and pastor of a street corner chapel in the ’90s inner city, and her son Baniaha (Charles Franklin IV), the congregation’s youth group leader, is the ill-fated son of Zeus. Although, Baniaha doesn’t know who his father is.
He also doesn’t know that, like many a Bible thumper, Momma Jo didn’t use to walk the straight-and-narrow. But Rufus (DeJeanette Horne), the so-called “crackhead” who squats on the sidewalk outside the church, he knows. He claims to know a lot about Jo’s life before she found Jesus, while she does her best to keep the church youth far away from him and whatever truth he might reveal.
Still, drug-addled Rufus winds up holding court on the chapel’s new marble steps, pontificating sometimes wisely about the blights ravaging the city, and about the goddess who, at first, appears only to him. In a dynamic performance, Horne spins Rufus’ street philosopher revelries into a rich portrait of a mind and soul lost to addiction, though perhaps not irrevocably.
Marie’s jittery, domineering Momma Jo similarly offers a dense, colorful palette of tics and emotions that fill in some of those blanks she keeps buried in the past. In their vital supporting turns, Horne and Marie amp up the tension.
Playing the youth choir members, Bowie State’s Jacobie Thornton, and Howard U. acting students Destiny Jennings, Dupre Isaiah, and Christina Daniels as the most kindhearted of them, bring vibrant comedic energy to their roles as a veritable Greek chorus.
The emotional weight of the piece falls on Hera and Baniaha, however, and, in those roles, respectively, Ruthmarie and Franklin register the intention without the full force of feeling behind it.
Gorgeously costumed, if not that originally, in goddess white throughout, Ruthmarie conveys Hera’s haughtiness, expressed in her plummy, eloquent speeches. The language rolls off Ruthmarie’s tongue and sits there, a mellifluous sound signifying disdain and displeasure, but disconnected from the hurt and humiliation that might motivate this queen to plot something so evil as getting someone hooked on crack.
Douglas’ production realizes Hampton’s fanciful depiction of the crack-ridden ’90s with astute design and details — like the Washington Bullets jersey and FUBU tee on the kids — that also evoke the story’s nods to ancient Greek myth. From the chapel’s marble steps, to the Greek drama-masked figures whose haunting dance interludes signal a descent into a crack high, ancient and modern religion meet on Momma Jo’s corner.
There, Hampton lands the play’s surest insight, that crack didn’t just happen to the hood, but was a deliberately wielded weapon of mass destruction.
Cracking Zeus (★★☆☆☆) runs through Oct. 13, at Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th St. NW. Tickets are $15 to $38. Call 202-248-0301, or visit www.spookyaction.org.
Every single day, for 20 years straight, bookstore assistant Kenneth has headed after work to Wally's Tiki Bar to get blitzed on Mai Tais with his best friend Bert. Wally's, as Kenneth informs the audience at the top of Eboni Booth's 2024 Pulitzer-winning drama Primary Trust, is his favorite place in Cranberry, New York, the sleepy Rochester suburb he's called home all 38 years of his life.
Standing center stage, Kenneth (Julius Thomas III) proudly points out Wally's among the buildings and homes of Cranberry, modeled in relief around the walls of Signature's ARK Theatre. He speaks of the place with childlike joy, admitting he might be prone to angry outbursts on occasion, but all's well as long as he's got Wally's and Mai Tais after work with Bert.
Like a love letter to the audience, everything about the Shakespeare Theatre Company's unabashedly joyous and funny Comedy of Errors says, "We're glad you're here." You will be entertained as if adored, yelled at with affection, and there will be no need to actually follow Shakespeare's ridiculously convoluted shenanigans surrounding the reuniting of two sets of separated twins, although a pre-curtain read of the synopsis will help.
Even better, you will be treated to Shakespeare delivered with a kind of natural energy, meaning you don't have to be a die-hard fan of the Bard to fully understand the gist of what's being said and why. Put simply, director Simon Godwin and this top-notch cast are out to give a warm and lovely embrace to anyone and everyone -- and that's a lot harder than it looks.
Billie Holiday is onstage dwindling before our eyes, struggling to sustain the fire that brought her to this moment. She's already told her audience, "You can only get to where you're at by way of where you've been," and this iconic performer has been to hell and back -- whorehouses, prison, addiction, heartache -- but she's still here, barely.
The Billie Holiday portrayed in Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill comprises a fascinating, tragic triple image, a performance of a performer performing the role of someone who isn't still messed up on heroin.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.