Jim Crow

OnyxFest: Babe

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OnyxFest is Indy’s first and only theater festival dedicated to the stories of Black playwrights. These one-act celebrations of Black life and culture are presented by IndyFringe and the Africana Repertory Theatre of IUPUI. After an initial weekend at the IndyFringe Theatre, upcoming performances are Friday through Sunday, Nov. 10-12, at historic Crispus Attucks High School, in the Auditorium at 1140 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Indianapolis. For information and tickets, visit OnyxFest.com.

By Wendy Carson

Delores Thornton brings us the story of her mother’s life and arduous journey from Georgia to Indiana in search of a better life and freedom from the racial oppression of the South.

We first meet Babe (Leondra Radford) at the forming of a new mental health support group in the year 2000. The therapist, Dr. Davis (Chris Sears), has assembled clients who all have different issues, but have personalities that complement each other.

They include a young alcoholic wrestling with moving on with her life (Kim McMurray); a former drug addict who still gambles (Gene Howard); and Babe, of course, who has been experiencing migraines and nightmares. Thornton plays an older woman who suffers from anxiety, especially when driving.

On her own with Dr. Davis, Babe participates in several sessions of hypnosis – despite the warnings from the voices of her friends and family, neatly channeled by the spirit of her old friend Octavia (Dr. Cheryl Talley-Black, who also provides some beautiful spiritual songs that cover the scene changes).

As the show progresses – with memories from 1989, through the decades, back as far as 1922 – we are given glimpses of the traumas Babe experienced and insight into how her brain coped with this knowledge for all of these years.

Director Trease Sears does a great job of keeping each character true to their story as well as having the unenviable task of directing the author of the work itself. The play is a searing indictment of the mental toll Jim Crow and the Civil Rights struggle took on so many. Thornton hopes that this will also encourage a more open attitude among Black communities to seek help when needed.

Not an easy road for family in IRT drama

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By John Lyle Belden

It’s a story many can relate to: A family takes a road-trip to another state to visit a grandparent, in part to give the teenage son a chance, away from neighborhood distractions, to think about where his life is going. Little sister tattles when one brother pokes another. Younger brother has his favorite song played over and over and over. So, it’s a family comedy, right?

“The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963” (based on the book by Christopher Paul Curtis, adapted by Cheryl L. West) adds a more serious context: an African-American family’s journey into the Jim Crow South.

At the Indiana Repertory Theatre through March 1 (effectively throughout Black History Month), parents Daniel and Wilona (Bryant Bentley and Tiffany Gilliam) travel with misbehaving teen Byron (Brian Wilson), five-year-old daughter Joey (Dalia Yoder), and nine-year-old Kenny (Xavier Adams) — through whose eyes we see the story — from their home in Flint, Michigan, to Birmingham, Alabama, and the home of Grandma Sands (Milicent Wright). 

Though the family is fictional, the world they live in was all too real, and not that long ago. The Watsons carry the Green Book, a reference of places safe for black travelers to stop. They dare not go to just any gas station or motel — like a white family — and the idea of just driving until you are tired is foolhardy and dangerous, as the Watsons discover. Even the police, who should be there to protect them, are potential predators. At Grandma’s house they are safe, but they know venturing out at all carries risk. Still, nothing has prepared them for when one of the most tragic incidents of the Civil Rights Era rocks the family to its core.

Bentley plays a dad who is likeable and practical, and a little stubborn; for him, family is everything. Gilliam’s Wilona clings to her better memories of the Alabama she grew up in, her one blind spot for a mom otherwise prudent and cautious. The three youths excellently act “their age,” the boys showing some growth as the events affect them. Yoder’s Joey stays perpetually innocent, always charmingly standing up for whichever sibling is in trouble at the moment. Wright, a familiar face on IRT stages, is a welcome presence, effortlessly commanding. The cast also includes Grayson Molin in two starkly contrasting roles — as Buphead, Byron’s white best friend; and later as an unfriendly native Alabamian. 

Directed by Mikael Burke, with excellent visual effects by Reuben Lucas, the play is a study of contrasts, especially between the familial humor of the road trip and the moments of horror. Current events add the irony that Flint, a struggling, literally toxic place now, was in the ‘60s a thriving city and comforting home base for the Watsons. But they return there changed, and Kenny nearly broken. Find out how, why — and experience the terror of the “Wool-Pooh.”

“The Watsons Go to Birmingham” in one movie-length act on the IRT Upperstage, 140 W. Washington (near Circle Centre) in downtown Indianapolis. Call 317-635-5252 or visit irtlive.com.