MARCH 11, 1994 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 13
ENTERTAINMENT
Top-notch artistry hampered by clichéd characters
Holiday Heart Cleveland Play House Through April 3
Reviewed by Barry Daniels
I'd have loved to report that the Cleveland Play House production of Cheryl West's new play, Holiday Heart, is an unqualified success. Taking chances on new work that deals with important and controversial issues is something that helps make our theater community vital. That this work is seriously flawed is doubly painful to me because of the artistry involved. Director, designers, and actors are clearly of the highest quality I have seen here in Cleveland. West is a playwright of undeniable talents and great promise. The devoted theatergoer in me urges you to support this kind of work even when it doesn't completely succeed. As a critic, however, I believe I have to state my reservations about the play and voice my personal concerns about the depiction of the title character, who is a gay man.
Holiday Heart is narrated by 12-year-old Niki Dean, who lives with her mother, Wanda, in a ghetto neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Questions about the nature of family are central to the play, and its action is structured around the creation of families. At the play's start Niki and Wanda have formed a non-traditional family with their neighbor, Holiday Heart, a gay man who makes his living as a drag performer at a local club. Loving, nurturing, and eternally optimistic, Holiday is the glue that holds this family together.
This family unit dissolves when Silas Jericho, Wanda's drug pusher-but not user-boyfriend moves in and sincerely tries to make a happy and traditional family in which he is a stable provider and loving father. Silas is not able to stem Wanda's self-destructive behavior, however. At the end of Act I she abandons Niki and begins her steady descent into a hell of drug abuse and street prostitution. A third family is formed when Niki is taken in by Holiday, who is joined by Silas in caring for her.
I hope it is clear from the plot description that Holiday Heart is dealing with important social issues: drug abuse, child abuse, violence, dysfunctional families, and nontraditional families are very real concerns in the greater community that is Cleveland. Unfortunately, too often these issues are presented through the most obvious clichés. Perhaps the author is trying to cover too much territory, but the result often plays like an introductory sociology textbook. Another reason for the play's failure is that the characters are not convincing or dramatically alive. In Jar the Floor West's characters were similarly static, but in that play they engaged us because they were drawn with considerable depth.
Director Tazewell Thompson displays considerable talent in trying to bring theat-
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rical life to West's cardboard characters and predictable action. He is blessed with an excellent cast. There are passages that succeed: where we are charmed by West's compassionate wit or overwhelmed by her skill in giving voice to raw emotion. I was nearly moved to tears by the powerful and beautifully written scene between Silas (Ron Cephas Jones) and Wanda (Harriet D. Fox) near the end of Act I which marks the beginning of Wanda's decline. Especially funny is the extended sequence at the beginning of Act II, when Holiday (Keith Randolph Smith) has to cope with Niki's first period: it's his first crisis as a mother. LaShonda Hunt as Niki is a perfect deadpan foil to Smith's hilariously over-the-top hysteria. It's a classic comic routine that is made even funnier by the introduction of Silas as an equally unprepared parent. The final confrontation between Niki and Wanda is brilliantly done against graffiti-covered walls with a sinister pusher (Leon Sanders) lurking in the shadows.
Holiday Heart is a self-affirming, loving, nurturing gay man. Smith, a tall, athletically built man, is perfectly queeny and queer as Holiday. He poses flamboyantly, pouts theatrically, flips his wrists and wears drag with great panache. (Paul Tazewell's gowns for Holiday are sublime.) Several things, however, make me uncomfortable with West's portrayal of the gay character. As a sexual being he is almost completely neutered, whereas the straight characters in the play are allowed to acknowledge their sexuality. This is a subtle closeting that has the disturbing effect of making him a safe character for a straight audience. This also makes it easier for a straight audience to laugh at his queeniness. Although I don't think West intended this, the result starts to feel like exploitation. Even more disturbing is the punishment of the character in the end which plays into the traditional puritan rejection of any and all deviance. As I continue to confront the closeted structures in Cleveland and its institutions, I tend to be more and
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queer. I would be curious to hear what readers from the community who have seen the play think about the gay character. The House has put together an excellent edition of its newsletter, Curtain Times, that addresses many of the important social issues in Holiday Heart. They have also organized a fine series of preand post-production discussions and events, State of the AfricanAmerican Family in the Nineties. Of special interest to the gay community is the panel discussion and open audience forum Gays and Lesbians in the African-Ameri-
RICHARD TERMINE
Keith Randolph Smith plays the title character in the Cleveland Play House production of Cheryl West's Holiday Heart.
can Community scheduled on March 19 at 7 pm in the Brooks Theatre.
Holiday Heart continues through April 3. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at
8 pm, Friday and Saturday at 8:30 pm, Thursday and Saturday at 4:30 pm, and Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets are $26-$33. For reservations telephone 795-7000.
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