This past weekend I went to see The
Penn State School of Theater’s production of In the Red and Brown Water, by Tarell Alvin McCraney. It’s a tragic story about a young girl named
Oya, who, despite her passion for running, is forced to turn down an
opportunity to join an elite team to take care of her sick mother, and later
finds her self unable to leave the town she grew up in. After the death of her mother she grows
bitter and lonely, finding comfort only in a man who is torn away from her by
war and his lust of other women. It
seems as though throughout the entire play nothing can go right for Oya, while
all of her friends are having so much success and love with happy marriages,
pregnancies, and bright futures. The
tale also follows the life of her childhood friend Little Elegba, who rebels
when he hits puberty and makes some bad choices that will follow him for the
rest of his life.
Oya’s ability to run mirrors her
personality: she is a strong, brave individual who has the will power to
overcome any obstacles. Unfortunately,
when she no longer has running in her life, she loses the spunky drive that was
once so prominent. Her beauty and
kindness once captivated every man who knew her, but that changed when her
personality darkened and grew cold.
I was most compelled by the importance
of music and dancing in the play. There
were a lot of very powerful scenes that including either a more tribal dance,
or dancing to popular current music.
Music is shown in the play as a form of expression; many of the scenes
that show a character professing something important was during a musical
number.
I have seen many plays in my life
and I thought this performance lived up to my expectations drawn from past
experiences. The actors did a great job
of engaging the audience with their energetic dance scenes and when they came
into the crowd. I thought the acting was
incredible and I felt like I could relate to each of the characters and what
they were going through. The girl who
played Oya very well represented her internal struggle. Although Oya never came right out and said
that she was unhappy with how her life was going, it was very clear through her
actions, the look on her face, and how she changed from the beginning to end of
the play. Overall, thumbs up, Penn
State!
