Christine Twyman and Hadiza Hinish (Photo by Krish Nihalani)
Reviewed by Socks Whitmore
The Hudson Theaters
Through Sep 17, 2023
Hadiza Hinish directs and stars in a West Coast revival of her favorite work by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage: Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine. The 2004 social satire follows Undine Barnes Calles, a successful Manhattan businesswoman whose life rapidly spirals downward after her husband disappears and embezzles her entire fortune — destroying her career in an instant and saddling her with his unborn child.
Suddenly evicted from her cushy life, Undine is forced to return to her childhood home in Brooklyn and move in with her family. Unfortunately, things are far less comfortable in the Walt Whitman projects; her grandmother is addicted to heroin, her veteran brother is obsessing over a political manifesto in verse, and Undine’s parents haven’t forgotten that she publicly claimed they were dead when she left home and changed her name 14 years prior. As Undine pursues welfare benefits, medical care, and a way to clear her name, she runs into broken systems at every possible turn.
This riches-to-rags allegory offers radically real portrayals of the Black American experience, shining a critical light on class divides within the Black community. Undine appears ignorant, bougie, and disdainful towards experiences from beneath her acquired class, having unapologetically abandoned her own family to claw her way out of the gutter. Her fall from grace, however, quickly humbles her; she is physically arrested for a senseless charge and sent to a rehabilitation program, for the first time unable to ignore the tangibility of those she left behind and the systemic oppression trapping them there. Nottage’s comedic approach to these topics barely softens the blow — the play makes smart remarks about governmental neglect, intentionally hostile bureaucracy, and the criminally ineffectual American medical system, but it also deals with heavy hitting topics like abortion, drug use, addiction recovery, and anti-Black violence. (The program’s tagline, “Experience Broadway in Hollywood!,” feels rather misplaced given the story’s gritty nature and the production’s indie budget.)
The design of the show is one its most interesting elements — in particular, the playful direction of the 12 different set changes and 26 characters executed by a cast of five. The attention to detail is palpable, from the heavy white and black color coding in Undine’s luxurious office to the scripted removal of the set piece by piece during a two-character scene.
The opening sequence has moderate amounts of clunky dialogue, though the show is designed to be quickly paced. Hinish’s take on Undine is frustratingly flat, seemingly oddly unbothered by her extreme circumstances and at times making abrupt emotional transitions out of underperformed intense events like an anxiety attack and a live birth sequence. The source material is strong, but this interpretation lacks the distinct energy needed to drive its message home.
Hudson Theatres Backstage, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 3 pm; thru Sept. 17. https://www.onstage411.com/newsite/show/play_info.asp?show_id=6358 Running time: one hour and 45 minutes
