Nina Simone (Williams) is there with her brother (Sanford Moore), whose sole function is to provide piano accompaniment when it’s needed the fact that he doesn’t speak a word becomes a small, sweet running joke. We occasionally hear crowd noises from the riots in the streets, and sirens. Hymnals, papers and rubble are scattered on the floor, and Jesus’ face has been blown out of the stained-glass window. 16, 1963, the day after four young black girls were killed there. The set, designed by Lance Brockman, is a bombed-out Birmingham church on Sept. Bryant, Thomasina Petrus and Traci Allen Shannon. Price’s directing and the pitch-perfect performances by Williams, Aimee K. Going in knowing the backstory (and more than a few spoilers) didn’t prepare us for the power of Christina Ham’s writing, Faye M. Last week we told you how this play came to be it was actor and singer Regina Maria Williams’ idea, born when she sang a program of Nina Simone songs at the Capri Theater in 2011. Moving, uncompromising, elegantly written and crafted, superbly acted (and sung) by a fierce cast of women, “Nina Simone: Four Women” deserves to live on and be seen far beyond the Twin Cities. An exceptional night of theater is happening now at the Park Square, on its new thrust stage in the basement of the Hamm Building.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |