Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Nia Akilah Robinson unearths inter-generational woes in Soho Rep’s production of THE GREAT PRIVATION

• By drediman
• March 17, 2025
• No Comments

Now that Soho Rep has moved uptown to Hell’s Kitchen — namely, to Playwrights Horizons’ upstairs Peter Jay Sharp Theater — the company has officially entered a new chapter in its evolution. For its first Off-Broadway offering since leaving its longtime downtown home on Walker Street, this essential purveyor of pioneering theater has chosen to put on The Great Privation (How to Flip Ten Cents Into a Dollar), a new work by young playwright Nia Akilah Robinson. Without giving too much away, the play takes place in and around Philadelphia during two eras — one in the 19th century, the other present day — that are connected by our country’s troubled history with race relations (no spoilers here). More specifically, each parallel track features a strong mother-daughter bond through which one family’s inter-generational trauma is dramatized.

To be sure, the race-fueled themes that course through The Great Privation shouldn’t be new to regular theatergoers. Similar to other like-minded plays, Robinson’s work spends much effort depicting how our present lives are haunted by the lingering, unsettled ghosts of the past. There’s even a revelation that’s strongly reminiscent of a plot device in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Appropriate. Despite these similarities, Robinson’s is a welcome new voice that puts an interesting spin on the conversation. First of all, her play’s premise is novel, using the dubious, morbid activities of “Resurrectionists” — essentially body-snatchers who dig up Black corpses in order to profit from them (e.g., by selling their stealings to medical researchers) — as a metaphor for the ills systemic done against Blacks. Additionally, their are flashes of striking theatricality that punctuate the play — the occasional eloquent linguistic flights of fancy, some atmospheric world-building, the unconventional scene structure — all of which evidence a fertile imagination at work. Despite the play’s dark dealings, the work ends on an authentically empowering note that sends audiences out into the night a bit enlightened and even inspired.

The Great Privation has been directed by Evren Odcikin, who smoothly and stylishly stages the alternating scenes between the two eras — thanks in large part to some efficient costume changes and shifts in communication style — as well as the eventual blurring that occurs between them as the woeful secrets of past are unearthed (pun intended, of course). Although the production essentially takes place on a bare stage — dominated by a large tree, a character in and of itself — there are a number of wonderfully theatrical surprises sprinkled throughout. Crystal Lucas-Perry and Clarissa Vickerie, as the play’s mother-and-daughter iterations, lead a quartet of game and lively actors. Across the board, the performances are broad and vivid, fully embracing wide range of emotions that spring from the animated characters.

RECOMMENDED

THE GREAT PRIVATION (HOW TO FLIP TEN CENTS INTO A DOLLAR)
Off-Broadway, Play
SoHo Rep at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Through March 23