BROKE-OLOGY

BROKE-OLOGY? I couldn’t figure out what the play was about from the title. I still don’t like the title much, but I loved the play. Nathan Louis Jackson’s play at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater is a pearl because it is layer upon compelling layer of a play about a family facing the progression of a debilitating illness.

I was chagrined at first that the only woman in the play was dead so early in the play. I’m cranky on the issue of roles for women onstage. But that was before I realized we hadn’t seen the last of Sonia King. Crystal Dickinson’s ethereal quality in the first scene was explained by subsequent developments. Ghost presence in dramas is a well-used convention and I liked the use of it in BROKE-OLOGY. Dickinson handles this coming and going with believable grace. William King’s wife is gone, but not forgotten and she continues to inhabit the heart’s home that he’s made for her. Once when Malcolm speaks to his father excitedly about his career aspirations, we see what William sees -- all the ways that this boy is like his mother. Alano Miller’s very sensitive, virile portrayal does mirror the aspirations of the woman in the first scene. The notes are subtle, but beautiful and when William comments about this, we audience members want to say, “He sure does.”

It’s easy for me to empathize with stage plays. I’m ready to suspend my disbelief and plunge down into any emotion you’ve got that feels genuine and well developed. Empathy is natural and easy with BROKE-OLOGY because Jackson’s play stays small and focused. The humor is used sparingly and deftly in the August Wilson mode. Jokes are more self-revelatory than mean. The lighter moments act to relax the audience and bring us into the drama to face the sadder moments. By the time the mournful beats come, we love these people too much to turn away.

Wendell Pierce’s work as William King is magnificent. He is nuanced in his sufferings and keeps a very sentimental play from going too far. Francois Battiste as Ennis is also judicious in his portrait. He wears his cap in the infuriating way of many young men, but keeps his face available to us so that we understand him and don’t dismiss him. Alano Miller sings no false notes either. His Malcolm is successful by mainstream standards, but is not slick or obnoxious. He is straightforwardly trying to come to a workable decision to care for his father. Happily, we don’t have to choose between them.

I don’t think it gives anything away to say that our profound sorrow at the play’s end anticipates that of the sons. Jackson allows William King a triumph and a succor we all would wish for, but he shows us what the cost will be to those who love us.

Talk about BROKE-OLOGY? It was more like BROKE-down-OLOGY. Dreaded Tourmaline cried unabashedly and had a damned good time. Where did DT go to pull herself together? Oh yes, the efficacy of dark, leafy greens is well documented. The Dreaded Tourmaline went uptown to MELBA’S to have collard green spring rolls --- again.