SHE


Coming-of-age stories don’t get any more engaging or heartwarming or inspiring than Marlow Wyatt’s SHE, now captivating audiences in its Antaeus Theatre Company World Premiere.

The teenager on her way to adulthood this time round is 13-going-on-14-year-old SHE (Camille Ariana Spirlin), and if you’re wondering about the ALL CAPS, that’s how SHE spells her first name, perhaps because like the moniker she was given, SHE Sojourner Freeman intends to command attention wherever she goes in the life of greatness she’s got planned for herself.

And though SHE’s “right now” isn’t all that spectacular, the coming year just might be all that and more, that is if her mother Bernice (Karen Malina White) agrees to sign the letter SHE has just received offering her a full-tuition scholarship to the prestigious Vanguard Academy.

Said signature is more easily asked for than granted, however, given how little attention Mama is paying her daughter these days, not with her latest live-in lover (Jon Chaffin as the inveterately jobless Mr. Lonnie) keeping Mama’s thoughts occupied during her days as the household’s sole bread earner and her nights spent in bed with her man.

At the very least, SHE can count on classmate Davie Mansaw (Lorenz Arnell) to support his almost straight-A student bestie’s hopes and dreams, even if he himself is happy enough with four C’s and a D.

Completing the cast of principals is next-door neighbor Miss Jane (Veronica Thompson), always peeping out her window to make sure SHE remains on the churchgoing straight and narrow, that is when she’s not offering up some of her freshly-grown garden vegetables to make sure SHE gets the healthy, balanced diet unlikely to be provided by her whisky-in-her-glass, man-on-her-mind mother.

No wonder then that the road to Vanguard Academy seems a rocky one at best, especially now that the letter SHE has given to her mother for her signature appears to have gone missing, and finding it seems the last thing on the mind of a mother whose hard-earned wages Mr. Lonnie seems intent on pilfering and squandering.

Still, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and playwright Marlow has us rooting for SHE every step of that way, even as life serves up one obstacle after another, even if saving up for her future means working on the wrong side of the tracks, even if it means late-night encounters with men who might pose a threat, though certainly not Othalee (Gerard Joseph), whose love of words (“unseemly,” “exquisite,” “circumspect”) would seem to make SHE and he kindred spirits.

I’ve raved about director Andi Chapman’s work before, but until now not in a play I could rave about equally.

Thankfully, SHE is precisely that play, and Chapman’s imaginative, inspired direction (aided every step of the way by Nicholas Santiago’s magic-infused animated projections and Jeff Gardner’s lush-with-1970s-R&B sound design) only adds to the wonders of Wyatt’s feel-good script.

Inspired too are the performances Chapman elicits, beginning with an absolutely superb Spirlin, every bit as incandescent and beguiling as she was in Fountain Theatre’s Runaway Home several years back, though this time round in considerably sunnier but no less captivating mode, and Arnell is downright winning as the best, most supportive, and most secretly smitten friend an aspiring poet could wish for.

White is a sultry sensation as someone convinced she was born to be a woman, not a mother, but is doing her best under tough circumstances to be both, and a commanding Chafin is precisely the kind of man to drive a woman like Bernice wild, and maybe even two at a time.

Last but not least, Thompson’s tsk-tsking neighbor-with-a-heart-of-gold Miss Jane and Joseph’s unexpectedly erudite Othalee are not only terrific in their roles, they get to play one more each as a bonus.

Eli Sherlock’s inviting apartment set (including a convenient stoop and next-door door), Wendell C. Carmichael’s period-perfect costumes, and Katie Iannitello’s just-right props have been stunningly lit by Andrew Schmedake.

Jessica E. Williams is assistant director. Camella Coopilton is production stage manager and Jessica Osorio is assistant stage manager.

Breaking free from the limitations of doing only “the classics,” Marlow Wyatt’s wondrous SHE allows Antaeus Theatre Company to stretch its creative wings to unforgettable effect, an apt metaphor for a girl who’s bound and determined to soar.

Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale.
www.Antaeus.org

–Steven Stanley
October 30, 2023
Photos: Jeff Lorch

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