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NY Theater: “In The Continuum” a powerful metaphor for women’s dilemmaSplendid actors portray LA ghetto and Zimbabwe women struck by HIV-AIDSBy Lucy KomisarThis taut, finely acted two-character play, written and performed by Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter, paints rich portraits of women’s place in two societies, the ghetto of South-Central Los Angeles and the new professional class of Harare, Zimbabwe.
The women, Gurira as the African Abigail, and Salter as the American Nia, show great skill as they play the roles of the people with whom the women interact, from a counselor delivering a screechy pep talk to a witch doctor who throws bones like dice. As the dialogue moves between the continents, one sees how much the ghetto teen and the educated African woman have in common.
Nia, with a strong ghetto accent, is proud of winning a poetry prize and being told she is full of potential. Still, she gets cut by glass at the site of a gang fight where she’s hanging out. At the hospital, she finds out good news (for her) and bad. Her boyfriend Darnell, an athlete who’s been offered a college scholarship, has made her pregnant. Getting him to marry her will be a way to cement her future, her “ticket out,” as a girlfriend says. But she also discovers she is HIV positive, and it is clear that Darnell knew he carried the virus. So does his mother, who is bitingly unsympathetic when Nia informs her of the situation.
Ironically, the best advice – alas, too late for her -- comes from her maid, who, on her knees scrubbing, declares that she’s planning to go to night school to prepare herself for a better job. She doesn’t want a husband: “no bride price or cooking in the village.” She says, “Love between a man and a woman ends in death around here.” Death, both literally and figuratively. In the intimate brick-walled Perry Street Theater, Gurira and Salter establish a high-energy, sensitive mood. As writers, they have perfect ears for dialogue. As actors, they are so versatile switching to different characters, you’d think there were a dozen in the cast instead of two. Director Robert O'Hara creates a sense of realism that eschews sentimentality. Like the best of plays, this is complex yet clear, a sharp, poetic commentary on the human condition. “In The Continuum.” Written & performed by Nikkole Salter & Danai Gurira. Directed by Robert O'Hara. Perry Street Theatre, 31 Perry St. (west of 7th Ave.) Mon-Sat 8pm, Sat 3pm. $60. Student tickets $20 with ID one-hour before perf. (212) 868-4444 or http://www.SmartTix.com. Through Feb. 18, 2006. http://www.primarystages.com/ Photo by James Leynse. |
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The
subject is AIDS, but the show is really about women – how their dependence on
men for money or social status or even just their identity blights their lives.
The women have been infected with the AIDS virus by their men, but that is also
a metaphor for the way men have damaged them. This is not a “medical” show, nor
is it a tearjerker. In many ways, the spirit is upbeat. Leave your tissues at
home.
They
are dressed in black tights and tops, one with a red African patterned cloth
wrapped around her like a sarong, the other with a blue bandana tied around her
hips.
Abigail,
a Zimbabwe TV anchor, has dreams of success – even joining CNN. She is
assertive, confident and charming. She also has a straying husband and thinks
that having a second child – especially a son -- would keep him at home. The
discovery that he has infected her makes her angry and frightened. In Zimbabwe,
everybody turns against women with the AIDS virus. The men send them back to
their villages. A friend who is a prostitute suggests she survive by selling
sex.
