Reviewed
by Martha Wade Steketee
June 26, 2006
"The
Dreams of Sarah Breedlove" at
the Goodman Theatre is at once a
classically staged family drama and a dream meditation infused with visions of
Africa. This is a play about the American dream of self-creation, of
self-invention, of self-naming and a story of one woman's rise to business
success. Along the way, playwright and director Regina Taylor and her design team have created a world of luscious
words, luminous sights, and gorgeous sound. This is a stunning production
dramatically, visually, thematically, historically, and artistically.
Sarah Breedlove (L.
Scott Caldwellloses both parents at
age seven, is raised in abuse, finds her way to an early first marriage through
which she gains her daughter Nelia and loses her husband, and begins a
hardworking life as a maid and laundress. Her vision of a better place for her
daughter Nelia (Nikki E. Walker)
is clear early as she tells us "how a person looks at a thing
matters"; her innate sense of efficiency and business is illustrated by
her working out how to hang several times the usual number of items through
pulleys and ropes to grow her laundering business; and her talent for treating her
hair and those of her friends and neighbors all provide the basis for her next
business venture: hair care products for the Negro woman. She says to her
daughter "all my wishes are in you", just as her mother "used to
whisper all her wishes and dreams in my ear." Sarah also talks about her
dream of her daughter taking up the burden of the business: "I'll sit down
and watch her rise." These imposed and possibly misplaced dreams, and the
theme of naming is planted here early on. Sarah says "all my life folks
have been trying to name me" and she resolves to take only those names
that have meaning for her. This same woman becomes the first female self-made
millionaire in the United States, builds a vision of hope, is challenged in
seeing her own family's needs and desires. This is an American life.
Sarah meets
C.J.Walker ( Keith Randolph Smith),
photographer and erstwhile salesman, who joins her business and become her
husband. C.J. Walker sees business as selling a dream: "People buy what they
need, and what they need is possibility." Sarah believes, on the other
hand, that you develop your own vision of the future rather than being sold
that vision. She also tries to impose her vision on her daughter, with
problematic results. Mr. Walker is unfaithful while Madame Walker travels to
build her business; Freeman B. Random ( Rolando Boyce, Sr.), first encountered as an overeducated Pullman porter
becomes attorney and confidant to Madame Walker; and now married daughter Nelia
settles in Harlem during its 1920s Renaissance and runs amok even after
adopting a child Mae (Libya Pugh).
Fortunes are won and lives are altered, and happiness is a challenge for
everyone.
Sarah has vision
to burn. She says "my dream gave birth to other dreams, until I was surrounded
by all my dreams come true." But she is also unable to see her own
daughter clearly. Freeman, her confidante and helpmate, provides a cautionary
tone when Madame expresses a wish to attend an international conference.
"Negroes," he says, "no matter how far they get, still need to
know their place." Madame refutes this perspective with the retort
"Someone still needs to dare" -- to dare to dream. Sarah's old
laundress friend Nola (Cheryl Lynn Bruce) becomes a purveyor of Walker products and grows frustrated after
Madame's business decision to broaden her market from solely dedicated stores
to general department stores, thereby cutting into the monopoly Walker shop
owners like Nola have enjoyed. Nola claims this is robbing her of promised
income; Sarah reflects on how any income is Nola's to earn herself. Sarah
proclaims and resolves "How you look at a thing is how you rise up."
How all these characters rise up is through their hopes and dreams, and the
strength of their roots. "The root is strong. And so it goes."
The set design by Scott
Bradley is flexible and gorgeous,
with simple flies and set pieces and one trap door transforming the set from a
backyard strewn with drying laundry to a baggage car on a train to different
houses including Lelia's garishly lit and decorated Harlem home. Lighting by Scott
Zielinski works seamlessly with the
set to evoke dream and reality, city and country. Sound design by Richard
Woodbury is luscious and Daryl
Waters's compositions beautifully set
this piece in rag time then early jazz era America. Costumes by Jacqueline
Firkins are suggestive and reflective
of characters, beautifully wrought and lovely to see. Dance as choreographed by
Hope Clarke permeates the piece
from the initial movements of Sarah in the play's opening dream sequence and
other transitions with her recurrent African dream visitor, and occasional
dance sequences performed by other characters, especially Lelia in her first
scene expressing the joys of a young woman.
This lovely
production provides one version of the life of an important American woman of
African descent: Madame C.J.Walker.
She has told us that her mother "whispered her secrets and dreams in my
ears so they didn't die on the vine." The life of Madame Walker has been
whispered in our ears. It will not die on the vine.