In the Hilarious ‘Jaja’s,’ Immigrant Women Live an American Dream
The well-oiled ensemble cast is the crowning glory of Arena's uproariously funny "JaJa's African Hair Braiding."
Take it from somebody who’s sat in a stylist’s chair at an African hair braiding shop in Harlem, and had the kind woman scoff at the thought of trying to finesse too little hair into D’Angelo-inspired cornrows, that watching Whitney White’s snappy staging of JaJa’s African Hair Braiding is like stepping into a salon on 125th Street in Manhattan.
Jocelyn Bioh’s hilarious ensemble comedy — which premiered on Broadway last fall in a production that White has brought intact to Arena Stage, except for the cast — offers a generous glimpse into the world of the immigrant women whose lives intersect at JaJa’s shop in Harlem. Each character we meet is vibrantly specific, yet seems to authentically reflect the communities they represent.
The shop itself, a set designed by David Zinn, also reflects their community with colorful authenticity. Converting cleverly from the exterior to the interior view of JaJa’s, the set vividly serves its role as a character in the story, the place that connects these souls who’ve all come from so far away.
In expressing the human characters’ origins and individuality, Dede Ayite’s costumes also get the job done with verve and color, which extends to the hair and wig designs by Nikiya Mathis. A few of the actors, performing multiple roles, have to get in and out of some elaborate wigs fairly quickly, and while the end results don’t always sit perfectly, the wigs also play a vital role in distinguishing layers of culture and character.
Audience members who don’t know about Black hairstyles might learn something as the action unfolds in a single day that’s packed with incidents and high-key emotions. It’s 99 degrees in July, and something’s in the air. Major change is imminent.
The shop’s proprietor JaJa (Victoire Charles), originally from Senegal, is marrying a white American man — for love, or security, or citizenship, or all of the above — and everyone at her shop has something to say about it, including dutiful daughter Marie (Jordan Rice), who keeps the place running.
The shop’s stylists have more than a word to share, too, while also juggling appointments, interpersonal workplace dynamics, and their own lives and loves. The table is well-set for gossip, conflict, and rapid-fire repartée, and JaJa’s stylists — Bea (Awa Sal Secka), Ndidi (Aisha Sougou), Miriam (Bisserat Tseggai), and Aminata (Tiffany Renee Johnson), all African immigrants — are serving.
The cast chemistry, aided by Mia Ellis, Melanie Brezill, and Colby N. Muhammad playing various customers, is unbeatable. These women, the customers and stylists alike, are the lifeblood of JaJa’s business. And, for the ones who immigrated here, their legal status looms powerfully over all concerns, even when it’s not the topic of conversation.
Their conflicts with each other, and the ways they rally to support each other, emphasize how the pursuit of the American dream, or simply American citizenship, can be a brutal, cutthroat competition that pits immigrants from different nations against one another. It even pits immigrants from shared communities against one another.
JaJa wants out of that rat race. Statuesque in her wedding gown, she proclaims that by marrying this white American, she finally can step into “the life God planned” for her.
It’s disappointing, though not surprising, that the play’s Broadway run was brief, but, newly revived, this co-production with Berkeley Rep and Chicago Shakespeare Theater is scheduled to hit both of those stages soon.
So Broadway’s loss will be regional audiences’ gain, especially if they keep this cast.
JaJa’s African Hair Braiding (★★★★☆) plays through Oct. 13 at Arena Stage, 1101 6th St. SW. Tickets are $59 to $99 with discount options available. Call 202-488-3300, or visit www.arenastage.org.
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