Photos by Carol Rosegg
Most of the time, theater-goers
browse through the program merely to fill time before the performance and
during intermission, but in the case of Marcus Gardley’s “The House That Will
Not Stand,” which is receiving its world premiere at the Yale Repertory
Theatre, it is almost mandatory to read the background information written by
Madeleine Oldham if you wish to understand fully what is going on in the first
10 or 15 minutes of this intriguing, beautifully staged play.
The necessity to read the program
notes is the result of two factors. First, the subject matter will be alien to
most in attendance, for Gardley has chosen to focus on a peculiar aspect of
what was once termed “our peculiar institution,” the system of placage endemic to ante-bellum New
Orleans that, de facto if not de jure, allowed for formal relationships between
white men and free women of color, most of whom were quadroons, relationships
that were arranged by the woman’s mother (who received money in return) and often
had the man purchase a house for the woman and bear certain responsibilities,
including a bequeathal of money at his passing. I would venture to guess that
not 1 in 100 of the audience members were aware of this formalized nod to the
reality that sex has always won out over race.
The second reason why program
perusal is necessary is that director Patricia McGregor has put a very
stylized, at moments almost surreal, spin on the production, opting to have her
actors portray their characters as slightly larger than life, which means that
gestures are often operatic and the dialogue is delivered with a rapidity and
volume and a pseudo-Creole accent that, at least for the first five or 10
minutes of the play, may be a bit challenging to the ear.
Tiffany Rachelle Stewart, Joniece Abbott-Pratt,
and Flor De Liz Perez
and Flor De Liz Perez
However, once you settle in, you
will be thoroughly engrossed in this magical-realistic tale of Beatrice (Lizan
Mitchell), the head of a household consisting of her three daughters, Odette
(Joniece Abbott-Pratt), Maude Lynn (Flor De Liz Perez), and Agnes (Tiffany
Rachelle Stewart), the maid, Makeda (Harriette D. Foy), who is a slave yearning
to purchase her freedom, Beatrice’s slightly crazed sister, Marie Josephine
(Petronia Paley) and the “spirit” of the man, Lazare (Ray Reinhardt), who
fathered Beatrice’s children and, at the start of the play, has died just hours
ago (his body is set out on the dining room table for viewing). Hovering over
the house like an evil spirit is Beatrice’s venomous enemy, La Veuve (also
Paley), who believes Beatrice has, for the second time, poisoned a man she has
been living with.
Lizan Mitchell (foreground) with Harriett D. Foy
Beatrice hopes, based on the
proceeds from Lazare’s will, to take her three daughters to Paris , where color is not such an issue, but
her oldest daughter, Agnes, has other plans. She wishes to attend the annual
quadroon ball (think slave market with dancing and polite conversation) to be
“placed,” something her mother is totally against. Agnes enlists the aid of her
sister Odette, asking her to masquerade as Beatrice so that the “mother” can
strike a deal with an eligible white man, all while Maude Lynn, who is
hyper-religious, protests, to no avail.
Details of all the sub-plots that
Gardley has woven into this tale would turn this review into a mini-War and
Peace, for there is betrayal and voodoo, a recipe for gumbo and the dead coming
back to life. Suffice it to say that they all, in one way or another, serve
Gardley’s purpose, which is to dramatize the various faces of subjugation and
slavery and the somewhat bizarre methods Southern society used to deal with the
fact that men and women, regardless of color, will always be attracted to each
other. At the same time, he also takes on the nature of prejudice, which
extends even into the black community in the form of an informal caste system
based on the fairness or darkness of people’s skin.
Petronia Paley
Playing against an almost regal
backdrop crafted by scenic designer Antje Ellermann and wearing costumes,
designed by Katherine O’Neill, as big and bold as the characters themselves,
and moving to the haunting music by sound designer Keith Townsend Obadike, this
cast of excellent actors creates a foreign world that the audience quickly gets
drawn into, a world alien to ours but, beneath the surface, speaks to the
problems of prejudice that still simmer in our country.
The evening runs to well over two
hours (with one intermission), but once you enter the house ruled by Beatrice
you will be so entranced that you will be unaware of time passing. It is like a
spell has been cast, a spell artfully crafted by Gardley that will, once you leave
the theater, haunt you.
“The House That Will Not Stand”
runs through May 10. For tickets or more information call 203-432-1234 or go to
www.yalerep.org
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