Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Audra McDonald is magnetic in Adrienne Kennedy’s slippery OHIO STATE MURDERS, the playwright’s long-awaited Broadway debut

• By drediman
• December 9, 2022
• No Comments

There was much to celebrate last night. First off, the evening marked the Broadway opening of Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders at the recently christened and renovated James Earl Jones Theatre (formerly the Cort Theatre). The opening also marked the long-awaited debut on the Great White Way of Ms. Kennedy, who for one reason or another has only now gotten produced on the Main Stem despite having enjoyed a long career as one of America’s most critically acclaimed playwrights. Her 1991 play tells the story of Suzanne, an intelligent undergraduate Black student at Ohio State who ruminates on the tragic murders that beset her.

In short, Ms. Kennedy’s deceptively simple play is delicate but mesmerizing. Despite the presence of other actors, Kenny Leon’s production registers very much like a one-woman show, especially given that both “young” and “old” Suzanne are here played by a single actress – the beloved six-time Tony-winner Audra McDonald. Although the mystery of the identity of the murderer is solved rather quickly an nonchalantly (if you aren’t listening carefully, you may even miss it), the real suspense in the play lies in its disarmingly clear-eyed depiction of the events that befall Suzanne – from the namesake murders to casual and not-so-casual acts of racism – which collectively etch the portrait of a woman literally out of blood and tears. Ohio State Murders is a slippery but seductive piece of playwriting that very likely may have influenced works like Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside, a similarly sinuous play.

As Suzanne, Ms. Mcdonald is magnetic and quietly enthralling as the character grapples with life with simmering stoicism. She imbues Suzanne with an emotional transparency that brings heat to Ms. Kennedy’s otherwise arguably chilly work. In the say manner, Mr. Leon’s production brings haunting visual poetry to the work (Beowulf Boritt’s surreal set brings together the setting of key moments in Suzanne’s story – book shelves of the university’s law school library, falling snow, an “abyss”) that enhance it. Despite their cameo-like appearances, Ms. McDonald’s cast mates nonetheless make an impression, particularly Bryce Pinkham as Suzanne’s opaquely drawn English professor.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

OHIO STATE MURDERS
Broadway, Play
James Earl Jones Theatre
1 hour, 15 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 12