RSS‘Sundown Town’ Brutal, Stunning, Beautiful
Feb 14
“Sundown Town” hurts.
Sometimes, it’s so eloquent and beautiful, it’s painful.
Sometimes, it’s so brutal and ugly, it’s painful.
One thing is certain: Even at 2.5 hours, TheatreSquared’s new play by Kevin Cohea is never boring.
Although it started life as a bluegrass musical, “Sundown Town” grew up to be something completely different. It’s still got the music, but now the songs wrap around the story of Moses, a drifter who wanders into a 1918 Arkansas town where African-Americans aren’t welcome — especially after dark but really, not at all.
It’s a little overwhelming to try to “review” something like this play. It’s amazing that a drama like this was born in Fayetteville, Ark., written by a local playwright, workshopped by a local company, produced on a local stage. It probably won’t ever be “Rent” — because 20somethings aren’t likely to attach themselves to it in droves — but it should surely be staged at every regional theater in the South. It’s not overly ambitious to imagine it off-Broadway. It could be a film, the next “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
How do you “review” that?!
So let me simply tell you what I liked — but let me start with what I didn’t, because the list is SO MUCH shorter.
I would take out two songs — don’t really care which two. The play is just a little bit long for a drama — not because people aren’t enthralled but because you can feel the time pass during a drama whereas you might not during “Mamma Mia.”
Choose to use all the props or no props, please. It’s distracting to watch the actors pantomime the fiddle and the dishes when they have the pocket knife and the Bible.
I understand what the light change, the music and the slow motion are meant to convey when violence erupts. But it would be a lot more powerful — a lot more brutal, but a lot more powerful — to do the necessary fight choreography and stage it in real time. When Loretta slaps Annie, it should be shocking and (that word again) hurtful. When Mutt kills Scratch, it should be the ugliest, most awful thing ever. And — my personal opinion, as all this is — we need to see what happens to Moses. The words don’t pull any punches; the action shouldn’t either.
What do I love? Everything else!
The script is powerful and evocative. I’d like to say I always knew Kevin Cohea had it in him — and I did. And still, I believe this is the tip of his iceberg as a playwright.
The cast — as I said Friday night — is only as good as its weakest link, which makes it perfect:
I’ve watched Bill Rogers on stage for years — and wouldn’t have known he was Scratch! Wow. Just wow.
I remember Halley Mayo as a sweet-faced child actress at Arts Center of the Ozarks and Arts Live Theatre, and I thought she made Annie sympathetic and naive and rebellious and sweet and hopeful — just like Annie needed to be.
I don’t think the show could have opened with a stronger voice than David Wright’s as the preacher we trust to watch out for his flock — but this time, he can’t.
Quinn Gasaway tore my heart out as Joshua, making him real and poignant but not a caricature of a disabled boy.
Bruch Reed also evoked all sorts of emotions as Dub — his love for his daughter, his distance from his wife, his respect for Moses, even after what happened at the church.
Valarie Andrews broke my heart as Loretta, all of whose passion has turned in the wrong directions.
John T. Smith’s Bill Cheatham is slimy — not evil, but too much of a coward to be good.
Playing Mutt puts Kris Pruett in danger of getting slapped on the street. Nasty, stupid, hateful and so believable is the character that the actor needs to issue a disclaimer: I am not he.
And Alex West… I thought when I saw Alex West as Moses in rehearsal that he was too quiet, too low-key to hold the show together. I was wrong. During the performance, what I saw as too quiet thrums with veiled power. Moses’ still waters run deep.
The set is wonderful and versatile.
And the music by 3 Penny Acre is what sets “Sundown Town” apart. I heard a theatergoer say the songs don’t forward the action well enough. It’s true they’re not lyrics that are part of the story; again, I’ll use “Rent” as a contrast. But they suit the story perfectly. And the live band keeps the show in motion.
I thought when I saw Bob Ford’s “My Father’s War,” I had been as privileged as a theatergoer in Fayetteville could be.
Now I am twice blessed.
Halley Mayo is Annie and Alex West is Moses in the TheatreSquared production of Kevin Cohea's "Sundown Town."