Displaying items by tag: Watson Swift

There are funerals where grief brings a family together, and then there are funerals where grief opens the door to everything a family has spent years trying to keep buried. In Hayward, playwright Netta Walker turns a father’s funeral into a reckoning with family secrets, unresolved pain, and the ghosts that refuse to stay in the past.

Given a bold world-premiere production by The Gift Theatre, presented at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater, Hayward, directed by AmBer Montgomery, reimagines elements of Hamlet and Electra through the eyes of Luna, the youngest daughter in a deeply complicated family. On the day of her father’s funeral, Luna announces that his ghost has come to visit her. What follows is part family drama, part dark comedy, and part haunting exploration of the emotional inheritance passed from one generation to the next.

The play opens with a funeral, and from the moment the family enters, it is clear that this will be no ordinary farewell.

Luna (Ireon Roach), her father’s favorite child, is overwhelmed by grief as she stands at the podium to deliver his eulogy. Her siblings seem considerably less interested in mourning. Eric (Victor Musoni), dressed in a white memorial T-shirt and sagging pants, and Leila (Sydney Charles), wearing a white dress that seems decidedly inappropriate for the occasion, give the impression they would rather be anywhere else. Their oldest brother, AJ (Gregory Fenner), a military man, stands rigidly at attention, as though guarding the proceedings at a state funeral.

Seated apart from the chaos is Maria (Shanesia Davis), the family matriarch, dressed in white, her face veiled and a white handkerchief close at hand. She carries herself with the solemnity of a woman accustomed to holding a family together, even when its members threaten to tear one another apart.

(from left) Alfred Wilson, Gregory Fenner, Shanesia Davis and Ireon Roach in The Gift Theatre's presentation of Hayward at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater. Photo by Joe Mazza / Brave Lux.

During the service, Luna sees her deceased father, Tony (Watson Swift). Her vision is quickly dismissed, but the encounter signals that something deeper is happening within this family. At the gravesite, the arrival of Uncle Johnson (Alfred Wilson), who is also a pastor, adds another layer of tension. There is little pastoral comfort in Johnson’s approach. He berates the family, directing particular hostility toward Luna because of who she is.

Religion, family expectations, and personal identity collide, and the resulting arguments reveal a household where love and resentment have become inseparable. The siblings fight, challenge one another, and expose old wounds, yet beneath their dysfunction is a recognizable bond. They may not know how to care for one another gracefully, but the connection remains.

At the center is Luna, whose grief is both the most visible and the most unsettling. Her father’s visits are not simply a supernatural manifestation of mourning; he has a request for her that reaches beyond the grave. As the family’s history unfolds, we learn that Tony served in the military during the Gulf War and returned carrying psychological wounds. The play suggests that the trauma he experienced did not end with him. His children, particularly Luna, may have inherited some of the emotional consequences without fully understanding their origins.

Walker’s most compelling achievement is her creation of characters who feel genuinely complicated. These are not tidy theatrical portraits of a dysfunctional family. They are people whose behavior can be outrageous, infuriating, and unexpectedly tender, sometimes within the same scene. The comedy emerges naturally from their interactions, offering relief without entirely diminishing the pain beneath the laughter.

Montgomery has assembled a strong ensemble and directs the actors with a clear sense of purpose. One of the production’s funniest moments comes when Maria sits center stage and her children gradually gather around her, one by one, as if seeking the comfort of the family’s center. When the last child arrives, Maria simply gets up and leaves them together. The gesture is hilarious, revealing, and familiar to anyone who has watched a family matriarch reach the limits of her patience. It is a moment best experienced rather than explained.

The scenic design is another notable achievement. The stage transforms from a church to a gravesite and eventually into the family’s living room. The final home setting is impressively detailed, providing a convincing domestic space in which the family’s conflicts can continue to unfold. My reservation is the time required to complete the transformation. Although the finished environment is effective, the process of getting there interrupts the production’s momentum.

Ultimately, Hayward is an entertaining and ambitious work that uses humor, supernatural elements, and family conflict to examine the lasting effects of trauma. Walker’s play is interested in the emotional territory families occupy: the memories they avoid, the wounds they pass along, and the love that survives even when they struggle to express it.

Still, the play would benefit from sharpening its central argument about mental health. Tony’s military service and the suggestion of inherited trauma offer fertile ground, but the relationship between psychological injury, family behavior, and Luna’s experiences could be developed with greater clarity. The subject deserves more than implication, particularly when the play so effectively demonstrates how one person’s unresolved pain can shape an entire household.

With its memorable characters, dark humor, and committed performances, Hayward offers a lively and often moving portrait of a family trying to find its way through grief. Like a Floridian-style shiva, the gathering is noisy, irreverent, and emotionally unpredictable. The dead may have been laid to rest, but in this family, the past is very much alive.

RECOMMENDED

When: Through Nov. 15

Where: Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre 1700 N. Halsted St. Chicago

Tickets: $45 - $50

Steppenwolf.org/hayward

With a powerful script by Jim Cartwright and knockout performances by every cast member, Filament Theatre’s “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice’” is a must-see. Set in the 1960s at a seaside village in northern England, this play about a young woman, LV (Emjoy Gavino), sequestered upstairs in her tidy bedroom, listening to her late father’s voluminous LP vinyl collection of popular chanteuses of the era that were his favorites of his—Edith Piaf, Shirley Bassey, Judy Garland and others.

Downstairs her mother, Marti Hoff (Alexandra Main), a raging alcoholic, usually wearing last night’s heavy makeup and jewelry, flails through the chaotic mess, screaming up the stairs for LV to turn it down, then collapsing on the cluttered couch. The dilapidated domicile features sketchy electrical, which frequently shorts out in showers of sparks. Yet when the power goes down, the music continues and we are treated to a revelation: LV can perfectly mimic the divas she has listened to for hours. And let me say you will be blown away by Emjoy Gavino’s singing.

Central to the achievement, or any performance of this script, is the musical capabilities of LV. How there can be found actors like Gavino who can act, and mimic perfectly a range of divas—her Billy Holiday is unbelievably convincing—well this is the magical mystery of theater and what separates us spectators from those conjuring the spectacle on the other side of the footlights. (Vocal consultant is Jessie Oliver.)

(from left) Ben Veatch, Alexandra Main. Watson Swift, Julia Rowley and Emjoy Gavino

Directed impeccably by Devon de Mayo and Peter G. Anderson, Gift Theatre has mined “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice” for all its dramatic worth. Largely a story of unresolved grief, and how in this case that grief is addressed, is the core of the play. It's a bit like a mash-up of "Glass Menagerie" and :Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf." As Marti Hoff, Main launches into Cartwright’s soliloquies for a very unhappy person, making them soar compellingly, and in convincing Northern British dialect. (Kudos to Dialect Coach Adam Goldstein.) As the villain of this drama, Main’s performance as Hoff earns our sympathy even as we despise her behavior.

(from left) Emjoy Gavino and Martel Manning

LV’s escape from this toxic environment comes through the offices of telephone installer Billy (Martel Manning), a suitor whose bashful advances are a perfect match for the reticent LV (it stands for Little Voice). Manning’s performance is nuanced and compelling.

Emjoy Gavino in Gift Theatre's 'The Rise and Fall of Little Voice' at Filament Theatre

Two larger-than-life characters also figure large in the action: the stage promoter Ray Say (Ben Veath) and the impresario Mr. Boo (Watson Swift), who each turn in outstanding performances. These two engineer a public performance by LV at a local club, and it's a smash—but it causes LV to crash emotionally.

We mustn’t overlook Sadie May (Julia Rowley), Marti Hoff's silently slavish drinking and dancing buddy. Rowley captures the essence of a character living vicariously through another.

From set design (Hannah Clark), costumes (kClare McKelaston) props (Lily Anna Berman), this production of “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice” will bring you on your feet cheering. Running through October 15 at Filament Theatre, 4101 N. Milwaukee in Chicago, it comes highly recommended. Reach the box office here.