'Love Thang' Both Hits and Quits

Is there really anything new we can say about love? The New Urban Theatre Laboratory’s new production of “…It’s a LOVE thang” does its best to present two interpretations that both update this theme while not straying far from the established cliché. The show ran at the Boston Playwright’s Theatre from September 6 to 16 and is composed of two short plays—“The Delicate Art of Customer Service” written by Cliff Odle and “Gift of an Orange” by Charlene A. Donaghy—both of which are directed by Jackie Davis. With only four actors in the entire show, the production is focused and intimate, with the two contrasting halves presenting a take on love that is complicated by very different sets of obstacles. True to the NUTL’s roots athese latest works are experimental and drawn from playwrights who are underrepresented in the mainstream theatre world. But not all experiments go according to plan; ultimately, “LOVE thang” strikes a lopsided balance between a bizarre and melodramatic first act and a much stronger and more mature second half.

“The Delicate Art of Customer Service” explores what happens when two former lovers, both locked in a midlife crisis, must “service” a client in a criminal profession they had both hoped to leave behind. “Delicate Art”, unfortunately, is anything but delicate, and the shortage of subtlety is the productions greatest weakness. Taking itself too seriously to be funny, yet too melodramatic to be satisfying, it wedges itself into an awkward middle ground in the first scene from which it never recovers. With unnatural lines of dialogue like, “Think of a lie as a creature that uses parthenogenesis to procreate,” and the achingly forced, “You order from the menu like you’re trying to figure out the Pythagorean theorem,” the work comes off as artificial. An overly theatrical sex scene makes the play seem even more absurd. These shortcomings are not the fault of the actors; James Bocock, who plays the male lead in “Delicate Art”, renders his part in the latter half of the program without any difficulty, and Jenny Gutbezahl, who plays his feminine counterpart, delivers her lines with conviction and force. However, the play as a whole reaches for a depth of meaning it does not grasp and leaves the cast’s most sincere efforts looking like caricatures.

Fortunately, “LOVE thang” comes close to redeeming itself in the second act, thanks largely to a skilled performance by Dayenne C. Byron Walters. Walters plays Oshun, an independent, self-proclaimed “voodoo woman” who lives in the steamy wilds of Louisiana’s Bayou. Oshun survives by selling potions and by casting spells that use the magical oranges that grow in her yard. The ethical implications of her way of life are brought to the forefront when when her calls upon the spirits go awry. Instead of receiving the strong and loving man she asked for, she instead gets an innocent 19-year-old boy.

In addition to working as an actress, Walters is trained in traditional and contemporary Haitian and African-inspired dance. Her dancing and singing is a real highlight of the performance. For example, when she casts her spell she contacts the spirits through a beautifully choreographed dance that acts to contrast her traditionally grounded lifestyle with the modern struggles of the men she encounters, such as finding a job or getting an education. Actor Richard Caines, who plays Oshun’s young love interest Taurean, also deserves credit for his performance as the wandering ex-football player who stumbles unwittingly into Oshun’s charmed world. The physical chemistry between Caines and Walters comes across as tense and genuine. Playwright Charlene A. Donaghy was inspired by “Gift of an Apple”, a short story by Tennessee Williams about a hitchhiker who goes astray in the wilderness.

Director Jackie Davis and the production team have succeeded in making the Bayou come alive on stage as a mystical, sensuous, and luxuriously unhurried environment. At one point Walters peels one of the magical oranges from her yard on scene, and the sweet aroma wafts through the audience. An auditory backdrop of subtly rustling insects and pulsating African-inspired drum rhythms give the Bayou a life of its own. This is a place of heat and mystery, where football and oil rigs reign supreme and where nothing is entirely as it seems.

In ostensibly a man’s world, Oshun manipulates the people around her with her wit and body. While “Delicate Art” fails to do justice to the artistic themes for which it reaches, “Gift of an Orange” is a more successful meditation on power dynamics, selfishness, and loss.

—Staff writer Ola Topczewska can be reached at atopczewska@college.harvard.edu.