THE BLUEST EYE

Performances are uniformly topnotch and the A Noise Within season opener is imaginatively directed and stylishly designed. I only wish I had enjoyed Lydia R. Diamond’s undoubtedly faithful stage adaptation of Toni Morrison’s downer of a novel The Bluest Eye even half as much as the Grade A treatment it’s been given.

The Bluest Eye recounts the dismal, tragic life of Pecola Breedlove (Akilah A. Walker), who grew up in post-Depression Ohio hating the dark skin and black eyes she was born with and longing for a miracle that would turn her into a blue-eyed blonde like her movie star idol Shirley Temple.

It doesn’t help that Pecola’s father Cholly (Kamal Bolden) is a volatile, violent drunk or that her mother Polly (Julanne Chidi Hill) much prefers the blonde, blue-eyed daughter of the white family she cleans house for over her own child.

Nor does it help that the arrival of fair-complexioned Maureen Peal (Alexandra Metz) at Pecola’s school makes our self-loathing heroine feel even uglier than before, or that white storekeepers ignore her as if she didn’t even exist.

Pretty grim stuff, and that’s even before (spoiler ahead) Pecola’s father gets his barely-in-her-teens daughter pregnant or Soaphead Church (Alex Morris), the spiritualist she goes to in hopes of a miracle transformation, insists first that Pecola feed poisoned meat to his landlord’s mangy dog … with the expected results. (No wonder poor Pecola winds up insane.)

Fortunately for audiences, Pecola’s besties Claudia (Kacie Rogers) and Frieda (Mildred Marie Langford) are around to lend moral support, and never more delightfully than when Pecola starts to bleed and they blithely inform her that she’s just “ministrating,” then go on to misinform her about the birds and the bees.

Still, whatever comic relief is provided over the course of The Bluest Eye’s intermissionless 105 minutes doesn’t overcome the stage adaptation’s overabundance of fourth-wall-breaking narration (primarily by Claudia but at times by others in the play’s Greek chorus), verbiage that may work well on paper but not so much on stage where “showing” too often gets replaced by “telling.”

Not only that, but the play’s multiple flashbacks can prove confusing as does having a couple of cast members play two roles each.

Finally, the play’s unremitting bleakness sends a message of hopelessness in stark contrast, say, to Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, whose heroine undergoes similar racism, colorism, and abuse but finds the strength to triumph in the end.

On the plus side, it’s hard to imagine The Bluest Eye being given a finer production than the one now playing at A Noise Within.

Director Andi Chapman displays visual flair throughout, aided by a crackerjack design team (scenic designer Fred Kinney, lighting designer Andrew Schmedake, sound designer Jeff Gardner, costume designer Wendell C. Carmichael, properties designer Stephen Taylor, and wig and makeup designer Shelia Dorn), all of whose work is quite stunning as are Indira Tyler’s choreography and musical director Maritri Garrett’s original music.

Stunning too are the performances being given by the vivacious Rogers, the versatile Langford, the feisty Hill, the fiery Crystal Jackson (as Mama), the dynamic Bolden, the exquisite Metz, the commanding Morris, and above all by the heartbreaking Walker in the play’s most demanding role.

Zaira Paredes-Villegas is stage manager and Arielle Hightower is assistant stage manager. Miranda Johnson-Haddad is dramaturg.

Suzen Baraka, Nathalie Bennett, Sydney A. Mason, Darryl Reed, Allison Reeves, and Lamont Young are understudies.

I absolutely loved Lydia R. Diamond’s Stick Fly and The Gift Horse, so it must be Morrison’s novel that’s at fault here. (It may be considered a contemporary classic, but every classic has its detractors.) Whatever the case, The Bluest Eye leaves much to be desired.

A Noise Within, 3352 East Foothill Blvd, Pasadena.
www.ANoiseWithin.org

–Steven Stanley
September 2, 2023
Photos: Craig Schwartz

 

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