I first encountered Alice Childress's play Wine in the Wilderness in a student production at City College. Since then. I've taught the play in a variety of theatre history courses.
When Classic Stage Company announced they would be doing an Off-Broadway production of the piece directed by LaChanze, who had recently starred in Childress's Trouble in Mind on Broadway, I knew I'd have to see it.
For one reason or another, that production kept getting delayed, but it is now playing at CSC on 13th Street, and you should definitely check it out. Beautifully directed and compellingly acted, the play continues to speak to audiences today just as when it first aired in 1969.
Yes, aired: the drama was first staged for television as part of a series of plays presented by the Public television station WGBH in Boston. Since then, however, it's become a bit of a classic on regular stages. The Lynn F. Angelson Theater where it's playing now is far from a traditional TV studio, instead wrapping the audience around three sides of its elongated playing area. The set, designed by Arnulfo Maldonado, works like a charm, though.
The action of the play takes place in the apartment of Bill Jameson, a divorced artist living in Harlem where the year is 1964 and a riot is going on outside in the streets. Jameson is more concerned with his paintings, though, and gets excited when his friends call him to say they've found the perfect model for a piece he's been trying to finish. He's played by Grantham Coleman, who came to audiences' attention in 2019 in Much Ado About Nothing and made his Broadway debut later that year in The Great Society.
I enjoyed Coleman's performance, but the real star of the show is Tommy Marie, played by Olivia Washington in this production. Appearing in a mismatched outfit and a bad wig, Tommy is a source of amusement for the other characters at the beginning, but by the end of the play they (and the audience) begin to see her differently.
Other strong performances are delivered by Brooks Brantley, Lakisha May, and Milton Craig Nealy. The show is only playing through April 13th, so see it while you still can.
