Sunday, February 24, 2008
A+E, Theater

Sounding off

Angela’s Mixtape’ doesn’t hit all the right notes

CREDIT: Rachel May
Naomi Lavette, Minka Wiltz, Gretta Glenn, Ayesha Ngaujah (foreground) and Jeanette Illidge in “Angela’s Mixtape”

“ANGELA’S MIXTAPE”
Synchronicity Performance Group
7 Stages Theatre
$12.30-$23.10
404-484-8636
www.synchrotheatre.com
Through March 16

DULY NOTED:

If the lead character in “The Missionary Position”—a right-wing Christian political consultant to a fictional presidential candidate—were more of a charismatic rascal (think Burt Lancaster in “"Elmer Gantry”) or more of an insinuating wimp (think Paul Dano in “There Will Be Blood”), you could either love him or loathe him, and then adjust your attitude accordingly to the rest of the would-be satire. As blandly played by Brik Berkes at Horizon Theatre (and as blandly directed by Heidi Cline), he lacks much personality at all. We have only his word for it when he’s “super-duper angry,” and sad stories about his stepfather or a summer-camp romance ring hollow (ditto a poorly staged fantasy sequence). Tess Malis Kincaid enlivens her scenes as a “tacky” campaign supporter. Otherwise, pretending to be edgy and topical, the show is mainly dull and trivial. Through March 16 at Horizon Theatre. 404-584-7450. www.horizontheatre.com.
 
Recast since I saw it last, Atlanta Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (directed by Drew Reeves), an annual Valentine’s tradition at the Tavern, seems like a one-sided affair—to me, at least. It’s too bad critics can’t be more anonymous, but for a company that prides itself on “direct address,” it’s odd that Veronika Duerr’s Juliet conspicuously avoided any contact with one small section of the audience (mine), while J.C. Long’s Romeo disarmingly engaged the whole room. As a result, from where I sat, she felt more detached and aloof, he more present and impassioned. Through March 9 at the New American Shakespeare Tavern. 404-874-5299. www.shakespearetavern.com.

By Bert Osborne

Agitprop for a new generation, “Angela’s Mixtape” is Eisa Davis’ energized autobiographical play about growing up as the niece of controversial ’70s activist Angela Davis. Like the compilation of songs she’s taping as a gift for her aunt, Eisa’s decidedly “unchronological” coming of age (and political consciousness) makes for a potentially disjointed theatrical exercise—but directed with style and vitality by the New York-based Liesl Tommy, and bolstered by the winning work of Ayesha Ngaujah (“Stick Fly”) as the inquisitive Eisa, the Synchronicity Performance Group production is consistently involving, even if it isn’t overly illuminating.
 
Her famous aunt presumably distinguishes Eisa’s rites of passage from those of any other young black heroine (see “In the Red and Brown Water,” most recently). Aside from enabling a few brushes with such celebrities as Toni Morrison or Ice Cube, however, Angela is primarily restricted to the background, elevated in a corner office apart from the rest of Rochelle Barker’s set and occasionally imprisoned behind bars (both real and imagined). She’s portrayed by Minka Wiltz, who faced a similar dilemma in Synchronicity’s 2005 “Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner,” in which she established an interesting focal point for the play—before drifting out of the picture.
 
The specific details of Angela’s radicalism and her ongoing battles with the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover and governor-cum-president Ronald Reagan are only vaguely alluded to. When Eisa starts pressing her for too many answers, Angela eventually replies, “Just read my book.” That basically leaves “Mixtape” to center around a more run-of-the-mill conflict between Eisa and her mother (Naomi Lavette), who seems to have her own problems living in the shadow of an iconic sister. It isn’t entirely clear whether Mom is serious about her own convictions (when her daughter gets into Harvard, she dismisses it as “a bastion of elitism, the Citadel of capitalism”) or simply a flake (who needs only see the movie “WarGames” to inspire her to join a nuclear protest).
 
Greta Glenn and the delightful Jeanette Illidge round out the ensemble as various other friends and family members, all of whom function as a sort of Greek chorus of backup singers. Noting the difference between wanting to find a boyfriend or buying some cool clothes, and standing up for one’s principles to the extent that her aunt Angela does, Eisa Davis the character ultimately underscores a weakness of Eisa Davis the playwright. SP