"In the Evening by the Moonlight" at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre rehearsal photo

 I saw a couple of mentions of this show in the press, but mostly I picked up a card in the lobby of another theater--those things work! I've been wanting to see a production by the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre for a while, and this one looked really interesting. So off we went!

The Play

Three friends meet up at a concert in New York City in 1963. One of them is the performer that night, Nina Simone. Her friends are both writers and activists: Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin. The concert kind of blows up, Simone sends everyone home, and she and her friends stick around to discuss the state of the world. Eventually they decamp to Hansberry's apartment to continue the discussion.

And it's a broad-ranging discussion, as you would imagine among three of the leading lights among American black artists of the time. It's witty and charming and provocative. They talk about music and art and literature and the civil rights movement and surveillance by the FBI. It's all there.

Underlying all the chatter are the personal issues of each of the friends. Hansberry has advanced cancer, and will be dead within the year. Baldwin is primarily living in France, where he feels he can be a free man in ways he cannot in America. And Simone is frustrated to be pigeonholed as a jazz singer when she feels her training is much broader and deeper, that she is not appreciated as a classical musician. And all of them, of course, are living life as African American artists in a society that would prefer they keep their heads down and go along.

On the whole the script is nice: you definitely get a feel for the voices and personalities of the three characters. Unfortunately, it feels a bit contrived. This isn't how old friends talk to one another. In particular, they describe events in detail that the others know about perfectly well, rather than just referring to them. It's necessary for the exposition of the play for the audience, but it undercuts the characters. The lines are great, and suit the speakers. They just don't make sense in the context of a chat among old friends.

So if I may second-guess playwright Traci Tolmaire a little, what the play needs is some more characters, who aren't as intimately acquainted with the subjects and people and events as the three main characters. That would provide a reason for the exposition, and permit some interrogation. As it is, the script is interesting, but not compelling. The characters are strong, but the context is lacking.

The Production

In many ways the production saves the script. In lesser hands (and mouths), the script would fail to hold the interest of the audience for the full 90-95 minutes. Luckily, this production has some real stars in it. We can start with director Margo Hall (who is also the artistic director of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, the first woman to hold that position). Hall is a tremendous actor herself, but she is also a strong, experienced director, and she has made this a tight, well-paced show. She also gets credit as "co-creator" with playwright Tolmaire (who also portrays Hansberry), though I'm not sure what that entails. Suffice it to say that the creative team has taken an adequate script and made it a fairly compelling performance.

It also helps that all three actors are terrific. Tolmaire is an affable, yet restrained, Hansberry, struggling to keep writing as her cancer robs her of energy and focus, but still active in all the movements that are so important to her. Ryan Nicole Austin has a terrific voice and presence as Simone. And Rotimi Agbabiaka just nails the James Baldwin: listening intently, considering, and exploding with words (and always, always with a cigarette!). Truthfully, I came to the show mostly because I wanted to see Agbabiaka as Baldwin, and was not disappointed. And I was pleased to see that all the other performers were just as solid in their portrayals.

Although they make some efforts to change things up, fundamentally we spend most of the show in Hansberry's living room, and there's not much chance for the characters to move or interact much there. The design of the set itself (by Carlos Aceves) is pretty cool, featuring books like bricks in the walls, with printed pages as wallpaper--we know we're in the home of a writer who perhaps feels a bit trapped by the writing.

The Bottom Line

I'm very glad we were able to catch this show during its extension week. Sadly, it was the penultimate performance, so it's too late for me to recommend it in a timely fashion. But this was a very good production of interesting material. It was an important moment in history, and the three characters portrayed were pivotal people in it. I wish the script had gone a bit differently, but given what it is, this production was a wonderful way to present it.

If this is the kind of quality the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre puts out, I want to see more of it!