JANUARY 28, 1994 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 15
ENTERTAINMENT
African American heritage through poet's eyes
Oak and Ivy
Arena Theatre, Karamu House Through February 8
Reviewed by Barry Daniels
Oak and Ivy is a drama of race, passion and poetry. The subtle textures and vibrant colors of Kathleen McGhee-Anderson's writing are beautifully captured in Sarah May's staging in the Arena Theatre at Karamu House. The play is about two poets and writers, Paul Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore, who were among the first group of black artists to achieve national prominence. It chronicles the period of their marriage, 1898-1902, and exposes some of the issues that people of color confronted in this country at the beginning of the 20th century.
Three central actions move forward simultaneously in the play and are the vehicles for its themes. Dunbar, who has been recognized as the "black" poet laureate, is tormented by the fact that his "Negro dialect" work is more highly regarded than his lyric poetry. He is aware he will be tolerated as long as he conforms to a certain kind of accepted stereotype. Faced with constant humiliation and frustration, he turns to drink for solace. He is finally the pathetic figure of a minority whose attempts to be part of the mainstream culture have been subtly, and sometimes not so subtly rejected.
Dunbar and Moore represent clear-cut distinctions of class that existed in the black community after the Civil War. Dunbar was raised in Dayton, by his mother, a freed slave. He grew up in poverty and in a strictly segregated environment. In contrast, Alice Ruth Moore came from the privileged black community in New Orleans with its hundred year heritage as a society of free people of color. The class tensions these two backgrounds create is a constant issue in the play and leads to conflict in the marriage of Dunbar and Moore. Its existence adds an edge to the traditional conflict between wife and mother over Dunbar's affections. The battle between the two women is both sad
and ugly: it illustrates the kinds of attitudes that destroy unity'in a minority community.
Finally, the play depicts Moore's struggle to define herself as a "new woman," who can have a career and a self that are more than living in the shadow of a husband. Dunbar never really understands her "feminism," and, as his health declines-he has tuberculosis-and his alcoholism gets worse, his wife is forced to devote all her energies to being his secretary and nurse. He is consumed with self-pity; she is stifled. Moore confronts dual prejudice: that of white America against black artists and that of a black community with conservative attitudes about what the role of woman should be.
Oak and Ivy is told from the point of view. of Moore. It is her memory of the passionate and painful relationship she has had to leave to start her own life. Sarah May's staging is true to the quality of memory. Scenes glow and fade as they pass before us. The set is a series of groupings of Victorian furniture placed around the arena space with a porch at one side and a platform at the other. The set never changes, yet artfully serves for the play's many locales. Music—mostly piano rags-fades in and out, covering transitions and underscoring key scenes.
The acting is generally excellent. Tony Sias is particularly charismatic as the young Dunbar. He speaks the verse beautifully and with passion. He rightly emphasizes the humiliation and frustration that are the reasons for Dunbar's decline in the second act. Sandra Cox True plays Ma Dunbar with a quiet gravity that makes the gulf between her and Moore all the more tragic. Rochelle Davison successfully embodies the youthful strength and convictions of Alice Ruth Moore. She is less successful in creating a sense of Moore as an artist. This is too bad, as Moore's poetry, to me, seems subtler and more modern than Dunbar's.
The relationship between Moore and Dunbar began with a correspondence—she wrote him as an aspiring poet who admired
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Tony Sias and Rochelle Davison portray Paul Dunbar and Alice Moore-Dunbar in Oak and Ivy.
his work. It is a special quality of the play that the importance of writing to each character is kept present. Letters are read as they are written and received-often passed from writer to receiver lit in spotlights at opposite sides of the stage. Books are exchanged and read. The poetry of both writers is performed dramatically.
Kathleen McGhee-Anderson has succeeded in portraying the poignant emotional realities of her characters as well as drawing an accurate picture of the complex changing social realities they faced at the
turn of the century. The prejudices she exposes, against people of color and women, are an important and unfortunate part of our history. Oak and Ivy is more than simply an historical document, however. It is also a play about love, communication and language. Letters and poems-words on the page come to life and fill the small theater at Karamu House with the beauty of poetry.
Performances continue through February 8, Thursday-Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are $10 and $9. For reservations telephone 795-7077.
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