[ssba]
Hairitage
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
The Complex
Through May 10
If you’re an American woman, chances are that at some point in your life you’ve struggled against the onslaught of media images aimed at persuading you that beauty-wise, you just don’t measure up.
The problem may be your skin, or your weight, or your chest or your body hair. Or it may be your hair itself (not soft, not silky, not shiny?) – a preoccupation for many ladies irrespective of ethnicity but an especially pressing concern for black women.
Writer/director Niccole Nero Gaines’s Haritage is the second piece staged in Los Angeles this year that deals with black women and the relationship between their identity and their hair. (The other, Supernatural, was presented by Chromolume Theatre at the Attic in July.) Entertaining overall, Gaines’s play is an uneven hodgepodge of monologues and sketches loosely constructed around six characters distinguished by their hairdos and the approach to life that (generally speaking) these dos represent or express.
The “sistah” with straight hair (Carole Cox), for example, is intent on moving up the corporate ladder, unrepentant in her willingness to conform to the White Establishment standard. The revolutionary “sistah” (Lindsay Castillo) resists chemical treatments and wears her Afro proudly. The “good hair sistah” is envied for her smooth locks, but she pays a price by being marginalized and becoming a target of resentment. The sistah with braids (Shaki Alliu) sometimes speaks for the African-born immigrant who scorns the African-American obsession with “good” hair by defining it as hair that doesn’t fall out.
The writing in some segments is funnier or more original than in others. The better ones portray not just the women’s obsession with hair; they extend into narratives that touch on race, class and gender, as in the beating up of a gay woman by a couple of thugs.
One notable monologue features Alliu as a young African girl who – in the privacy of her bedroom – defies custom by arranging her hair in a manner proscribed for a person of her class. A performer with measurable presence, Alliu’s presentation here and elsewhere is clear and effective. Cox is also adept and persuasive as someone cool, white-collar and ambitious.
The weaker sketches tend to be those set in the beauty parlor, or those where the characters snipe at each other about their dos. There are some laughs here but it’s stuff we’ve seen before.
Production elements like set and lighting are minimal, but Gaines jazzes up the show with colorful wigs and costume changes. Renee ChaCha’s choreography and the other musical elements are a plus.
The Complex , 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Sun. 3 pm, Jan.11 through May 10. (917) 887-1717, https://www.HAIRitageThePlay.com
