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A CurtainUp New Jersey Review
Knock Me a Kiss
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"You don’t want to end up like me for good reason. But I was not always like this. I used to be like you, you know. I used to be a soldier. I marched right into battle." — Nina Dubois |
Andrew DeShields
(Photo: Lia Chang ) |
The play is set in 1928, during a period recognized and revered as the Harlem Renaissance. In it, the highly regarded black scholar, activist and co-founder of the NAACP W.E.B. Dubois has decided it is time for his charming, well-educated 26 year-old daughter Yolande to get a husband. As his protégée the poet Countee Cullen is already being viewed as a prominent figure among the young black artists and intellectuals of the time, he appears to be the perfect young man for Yolande – or is he? And does Father, thinking only of a significant match for his daughter and also what a magnificent social event their well publicized wedding will be, really know best?
And what is the high-spirited but also relatively naïve Yolande to do, in the face of her father’s disapproval, about her budding romantic relationship with the up-and-coming but still struggling swing band leader Jimmy Lunceford? These are the questions that are answered in a play in which large dollops of risqué humor, as well as many demonstrations of old-fashioned hubris are used to define the characters and their follies.
Smith has deftly re-imagined the back story behind the exceedingly strange real-life courtship and even stranger marriage of Yolande and Countee as well as its dissolution as it is reflected in a series of riveting and robustly performed scenes. We are initially drawn into the story by the passion and the zeal with which the attractive Jimmy Lunceford aggressively pursues Yolande. Morocco Omari’s imposingly disarming and virile performance as Jimmy may not be in the least nuanced, but seen in the light of his reticent rival, the self-absorbed Countee (played with perhaps just a little too much indifference by Sean Phillips), his presence and the force of his personality gives the play some very decisive emotional grounding. This is good as so much of the action pivots rather too cautiously around Yolande’s and Countee’s marital incompatibility, demonstrably affected by his rather disingenuous attempts to be friendly at best, while he makes no apology for his inferred more intense and meaningful affection for his best friend (unseen).
If anything, the play is even more grounded by the relationship that bonds Yolande with her autocratic father, played with pompous panache by theater veteran André De Shields. Shield’s, who made his Crossroads performing debut in 1994 in Harlem Nocturne and has returned to direct shows on a number of occasions, has some winning, laugh-inducing moments as he rants his old fashioned notions about love and what a woman should expect in a marriage.
I was particularly disposed to feel deeply for the apparently missing bond between Yolande and her mother Nina (Marie Thomas), a woman consigned to also living in the shadow of her famous husband. Marie Thomas gives a particularly touching performance as the wife and mother whose fragile mental state is underscored by the memory of a child, whose death at infancy she attributes to her husband. Either it is because Gillian Glasco, as Yolande’s best friend and confidante Lenora, has the best lines or that she makes every smart and snappy bon mot count, her vivacity and sparkle raises the pleasure quotient of the play beyond its already totally commendable level.
Chuck Smith, who is a resident director of Chicago’s Goodman Theater and directed Knock Me a Kiss for its premiere at Chicago’s Victory Theater as well as the New York production produced by the New Federal Theater, has to be commended for keeping a tight rein on the play’s dramatic situations, as they are dependant upon the many raunchy, insinuating and sexy curves they take before reaching a solemnly tender resolution.
Anthony Davidson’s set design modestly suggests the study of the Dubois’ Harlem apartment. A downstage bench is enough to suggest other locations, all of which are enhanced by Shirley Prendergast’s lighting. While a collection of fine and flashy 1920s frocks designed by Ali Turn certainly earn our attention, it remains for the well-conceived characters who wear them in this smartly written play to keep our interest as compellingly as they do. Although the play’s title refers to the early Louis Jordan song, it didn’t become a jukebox hit until 1942. You can hear a recording made by the Jimmy Lunesford Band on YouTube.
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Knock Me A Kiss By Charles Smith Directed by Chuck Smith Cast: Erin Cherry (Yolande), Andre De Shields (W.E.B. Dubois), Gillian Glasco (Lenora), Morocco Omari (Jimmy), Sean Phillips (Countee Cullen), Marie Thomas (Nina Dubois) Scenic Design: Anthony Davidson Costume Design: Ali Turns Lighting Design: Shirley Prendergast Sound Design: Bill Toles Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes including intermission Crossroads Theatre Company, 7 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ (732) 545 – 8100 Tickets: $50 - $40 Performances: Evening: 8 PM; October 31, Naovember 1,2,3; Matinees: 3 PM; October 28, November 3, 4. From 10/25/12 Opened 10/27/12 Ends 11/04/12 Review by Simon Saltzman based on performance 10/27/12 |
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