Love is Another Country
Reviewed by Lara J. Altunian
Coin & Ghost
Through March 2
An ancient Greek tragedy remixed into a modern black woman’s tale, Lisa Marie Rollins’ Love is Another Country meditates on an endless cycle of violence through which the main characters struggle to find solace.
Ethel May (Tyree Marshall) is a 1920s/30s-era brothel owner who regularly deals with racism and discrimination in her day-to-day life. Fearless and strong-willed, she fights to keep her business running and to take care of the women who work for her, one of whom is taken advantage of by an abusive client in the first scene.
The play shifts to a present-day African American family. Gonee Chapman (played by Dee Dee Stephens and based off of the character Antigone in the Greek tragedy of the same name) is the homeowner and matriarch, a woman with her master’s degree and a good job. Her sister NeNe (played by Celia Mandela Rivera and based off of Ismene) is down on her luck and fighting to make ends meet while working hard to get her children back from government services. The two women try to come to terms with each other enough to raise their younger brother Jordan (played by Amaka Izuchi and based off of Polyneikes), who has a tendency to hang out with a risky crowd. A heartbreaking — and unfortunately predictable — death due to police violence triggers a chain of reactions and events that tear what’s left of the family apart.
Rollins pulls no punches with her dialogue; Marshall consistently fires away strong and tightly-phrased pockets of punchy speech, and Stephens delivers an especially emphatic and poignant monologue as Gonee in the play’s crux.
Artistic transitions full of brief dances are brought to life under Kendall Johnson’s direction. When the women are not playing the family members, they often act as additional characters who wear veils and whisper into the air, thickening the atmosphere with doubt in scenes having to do with the hereafter or the passage of time. Some of these segments enhance the play’s mysticism and even bring to mind a Greek chorus, which serves as an omnipresent witness to the story.
However, many of the transitions are a bit superfluous and get in the way of the plot’s ability to flow forward. The play often feels like a short story that it is being dragged out, especially since the dialogue’s directness and its bold delivery overpower some of these extra scenes instead of working with them to create a cohesive show.
Theatre, 5453 Pico Blvd., Wilshire Vista; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 p.m.; through Mar. 2. (818) 925-4928 or https://coinandghost.org/liac/. Running time: 85 minutes with no intermission.
