Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ performance in her own WHERE WE STAND casts a spell despite an occasionally vague and didactic script

• By drediman
• February 14, 2020
• No Comments

Donnetta Lavinia Grays in her own solo show “Where We Stand” at WP Theater. Photo by Joan Marcus.

This week, the new play Where We Stand opened Off-Broadway, courtesy of WP Theater (in a co-production with Baltimore Center Stage). The solo show – written and performed by Donnetta Lavinia Grays – is a morality tale that falls squarely in the realm of magic realism. Set in a fictitious town, Ms. Grays’ play tells the story of a destitute outcast whose life is changed when he meets a mysterious man with the miraculous power to grant wishes. However, in the process of trying to do right by his community, the former outcast unleashes a set of events that have the potential to irrevocably reverse his good fortunes.

Staged on a totally bare stage, Ms. Grays seeks in her work to activate our imagination through unadulterated storytelling. For the most part, she succeeds. Much of the show is told through stream-of-conscience speechifying, which is occasionally accompanied by snippets of gospel-tinged singing. This fragmented approach blurs the narrative a little bit, lending a surreal, dreamlike quality to Ms. Grays’ fable-like story of crime and punishment, which occasionally comes off as didactic in its exploration of justice and mercy.

That Where We Stand works as well as it does is attributable to Ms. Grays’ rigorous and commanding performance. Her speech rhythms are hypnotic, casting a spell and lulling the audience into the play’s rich – albeit vague – world. Although spare, the direction by Tamilla Woodard is immersive and focused. Her staging has Ms. Grays breaking the fourth wall on frequent occasions. That the actress intently acknowledges the audience throughout her performance (the show is performed with the house lights on) is a smart move – a more traditional staging would have made for a definitively mediocre experience.

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WHERE WE STAND
Off-Broadway, Play
WP Theater
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through March 1