Confronting race, gender without flinching
By Ann Bennett, Register-Pajaronian Theater Writer
SANTA CRUZ - Last weekend was evidently a weekend for soul searching theater. Friday night I saw the introspective "night, Mother," and that was followed by Saturday night's equally introspective, but far more emotionally complex production of "A Long Time Since Yesterday." The drama, presented by the African American Theater Arts Troupe at UCSC, is a quixotic evening of theater that ranges from cordial superficiality to soul-searching honesty with pleasing and engrossing results.
Playwright Patricia Gibson has written a beautifully crafted play that examines the intertwined lives of five strong, but individually dissimilar African American women. Set in the mid-1980s, the story unfolds as the women gather after the funeral of their mutual friend, Janeen, to grieve together and to share their insights into a life that ended with an unexpected suicide.
Gibson's play is a powerful and evocative, and the AATAT production is both tremulously empathetic and searingly direct. "A Long Time Since Yesterday" doesn't pull any punches in its look at these five women and their struggle to cope with some sort of reality. With the inclusion of comedy and even a bit of music, the show confronts sex, race, politics, and gender without flinching.
Directed by Don Williams with a fine eye for visual effects and with the kind of taut precision that keeps the play balanced on the edge of an emotional chasm, "Yesterday" looks at the lives and secrets of the women and slowly exposes the fragile ties they share.
Casandra Patten is excellent as the catalyst, Panzi, a complex character whose stunning revelations are the focus of the play. Patten handles the role with smoldering control that explodes into grief - and whose pain is almost palpable. Janeen (Patricia Russell) is subtly and humbly vulnerable, Babbs (Niketa Calame) is abrasively and drunkenly vulnerable, Alisa (Rachel Martinez) is sweetly and complacently vulnerable, and Thelma (Aida Waters) appears obscurely unaware of all the vulnerability that surrounds her.
A flamboyant performance by JuJuanna Williams defines the self-absorbed Laveer with undisguised derision and an oddly gentle underside that gives her character nice depth. Pallavi Somusetty and Zakia Goodwin are very good as the young Laveer and Janeen; their introductory vignette contributes nice clarity to the women they become.
The delightful set by Clint Jeffries provides a perfect backdrop to the drama. The room is comfortable, the furnishings appropriate, and all the doors work very well. Costumes by Tatonia Taylor cleverly define the personalities of the women who wear them - although I'm not entirely sure about Laveer's inexplicable cocktail dress outfit that features a replica of the Sydney Opera House in dazzling green.
Despite a few flaws - bits of conversation occasionally got lost for lack
of good projection - "A Long Time Since Yesterday" is an entertaining
and cleverly executed show. The play has humor and convincingly real-life
exchanges; it's the kind of drama that easily and comfortably draws you into
the lives and affairs of the five very diverse characters. Best of all, it
works its magic along an intricate pathway that leads, finally, to a dramatic
and unexpected ending and lleaves you mentally replaying every logue in a
search for clues.
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