Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous
Alliance Theatre
through April 14, 2019

This world premiere of Pearl Cleage at the Alliance is quite a bit different than what you might have anticipated. It is a story of a couple of women who come back to Atlanta after decades living abroad. Anna Campbell (Terry Burrell) is an actor without a gig, and hoping to get back on the boards at a festival being produced by Kate Hughes (Jenie Fleming). The show starts with the problem of Anna’s ego getting to be a hazard. She is sharing a suite with her partner Betty Samson,(Marva Hicks) who is trying to manipulate their way around that ego.

Without getting into too many details, Anna’s most famous performance was her monologues of the excerpts from the works of playwright August Wilson. She was working in Amsterdam, maybe in the red light district, and her work won appreciation. But, she was getting on in years. Betty wants to bring a younger lass on stage, and therein lies the problem.

Enter Precious Watson (Ericka Ratcliff) who prefers her pseudonym, “Pete”. Pete is of a totally different background, other than race; and Anna can’t see the inner values of this woman. The show is all about how we can assess the value of a person by listening to them and thinking about why and how others feel as they do. What is really good about the show is how Pearl fashioned this with a barrage of laughter out of angst.

The show is a one-act running about 90 minutes, and is presented on the new Coca Cola Stage, directed by Susan V. Booth, on a really grand set. More info at AllianceTheatre.org