can i touch it?
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre
Through June 11
RECOMMENDED
Show me a play about a working woman who pits her strength and smarts against predatory banks, and you’ll have me rooting for it, and her, from the start.
Directed by Gregg T. Daniel, francisca da silveira’s can i touch it?, a rolling premiere at Rogue Machine, features all the ingredients for this kind of arresting conflict, including actors with talent and presence. One of the play’s two central themes is the struggle of African American women for dignity and respect in the eyes of the rest of us — a struggle that firstly demands their own acknowledgement of their worth and talent, followed by apologies to no one, ever. That message sure does give the play a lot of punch — yet despite these dual thematic strengths, the production doesn’t crackle and pop quite as much as it could.
Shay (Safiya Fredericks) is a widow committed to the future of her college-bound daughter, Ruth (Iesha Daniels). She earns her living as the owner of the only Black beauty supply shop in the Roxbury section of Boston that sells exclusively African American hair products, while catering immediately and personally to the needs of her clientele. But now Shay’s in desperate need of a loan, her finances stretched because the interest on her mortgage has been hiked to unmanageable levels. The same bank which raised her rates and denied her this second loan has been buying up property throughout the neighborhood in a process of gentrification that is draining the community of character and color.
Shay’s efforts on behalf of herself and her community have her participating in neighborhood organizations where she negotiates with corporate interests who profess to having the public interest at heart. By contrast, her niece Meeka (Suzen Baraka) who works in the shop, advocates for a louder, angrier response to the hypocritical forces within the Establishment (banks, in this case) that exploit the poor and working middle class for plundering ends.
Both Fredericks as Shay and Baraka as Meeka (she also plays a chilly banker) are skilled performers and well-cast in their roles (although I thought Baraka could turn up the heat on Meeka’s ire, at present restrainedly snarky). A fourth performer, Scott Victor Nelson, juggles three parts — a loan officer at the bank, Shay’s good friend Mark, also a civic activist, and a hairdresser with his own shop ready to hire Meeka should she split from Shay. Nelson proves more than able at all of them, although having the actors double and triple up — at the playwright’s direction, not the director’s —ultimately confused me, despite the wig and costume changes these transformations entail. (I wanted the characters I was rooting for to remain who they were.)
Under Daniel’s direction, the show moves at a clipped pace, with characters that are crisply etched and adroitly presented. Its professional sheen notwithstanding, neither the poignancy nor the rage at the heart of the drama is affectingly explored, with style taking precedence over emotional substance.
A backdrop in Mark Mendelson’s scenic design conveys the colorful chaos that imbues these people’s lives. Chris Moscatiello’s sound augments those elements of magical realism that da silveira has added in (though a riff about a book with supernatural properties seems to come out of nowhere). Leigh Allen’s lighting of specific interiors is overly dim at times. Wendell Carmichael’s wigs are fun.
A final caveat: a play about women of color wrestling with indignity and injustice, with a sound text relayed by an adept ensemble, deserves note — whatever perceived imperfections a critic may cite.
Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave, Hollywood. Fri.-Sat., Mon., 8 pm, Sun., 3 pm; thru June 11. https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/ Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
