Western Michigan University Theatre recently opened its production of “All the Natalie Portmans," by C.A. Johnson. WMUK’s Gordon Bolar has this review.
The curious title of C.A. Johnson’s script refers to the fantasy life of a black female high school student, Keyonna. She longs to escape the hand-to-mouth existence of her dysfunctional family, and the uncertainty of her alcoholic mother’s unpredictable nature.
In addition to her recurring make-believe conversations with the Academy award-winning movie star, Keyonna papers the house with pictures of Natalie Portman and other glamorous women from the pages of Vanity Fair.
Keyonna’s desire to transport herself to the riches, romance, and fame of a Hollywood scriptwriter results in a coming-of-age storyline that lacks a cohesive or completed narrative. Although Keyonna’s efforts to survive her family’s life of poverty and addiction are at times admirable, the final result is fraught with many questions.
What does carry this show, however, are director Arizsia Staton’s dynamic staging, laudable performances, and the fast-paced, electric interactions among the five members of a talented cast.
Xavier Bolden, as older brother Samuel, presents at first glance a charming, genial, and resourceful character. For Keyonna, he stands as a figure of relative strength and stability in the family’s turbulent home life. Bolden’s character is convincing as a protector and surrogate parent for his sister, and seems to have a plan to come up with the illusive monthly rent money if his mother fails to do so. Later we discover that Samuel is also convincing as a liar and a thief.
As Bolden woos a young family friend, Chantel, played by Lataevaya Severe, she appears slightly reticent of his advances. Here Severe successfully navigates the uncharted waters of her complex character’s sexuality. Although she is in a heterosexual relationship with Samuel, she is also open to the lesbian affections of Keyonna. Much is left unsaid by each of the play’s characters, when confronted with the idea of love between these two women in the family home.
While the failure to fully address same-sex relationships helps underscore household tensions and Keyonna’s isolation at home and school, it also leaves much to be inferred or imagined for the play’s final outcome, and Keyonna’s future.
Several scenes in which she interacts with her make-believe friend Natalie Portman provide Keyonna with a break from the real-life problems that seem to be closing in on her. Katie Bavirsha, as Portman, presents an energetic and glamorous fantasy playmate who accepts Keyonna as an equal and as a scriptwriter for her films, until Keyonna finally pushes her away.
Bavirsha is effective as Portman and fills the part’s requirements both physically and emotionally. As I watched her half dozen scenes in various costumes, however, I couldn’t help wondering which Natalie Portman film I was seeing and if the particular role she played had relevance to the moment she interrupts in Keyonna’s life. Has Portman been summoned for a specific kind of rescue mission, or is she simply a regular distraction from harsh reality?
As Keyonna, Kiara Gilmore portrays a young woman struggling to reconcile many disappointments. Although this struggle shows in her face and posture, it is broken occasionally by interludes from the aforementioned Portman and by her demonstrative storytelling sessions. Here Gilmore displays welcome variety beyond her character’s initially stoic demeanor, even though the stories she tells don’t seem to be revelatory or memorable.
High on Keyonna’s list of disappointments are her mother’s frequent late night drunken episodes, her negligence of her financial responsibilities, and her emotional abandonment of both children since the recent death of her husband. Some of director Arizsia Staton’s most compelling scenes occur between Keyonna and her volatile mother, Ovetta, played by Arise Rock.
When questioned about her behavior by her daughter, Rock’s Ovetta returns in kind to what she perceives as disrespect. When these highly charged dysfunctional altercations do erupt, they seem to be barely contained by the intimate confines of WMU Theatre’s York Arena. Arise Rock is an actress capable of a wide range of emotional states and notes. This is evident as she manifests alcoholic rage, quickly followed by a radical shift to sweetness and light toward her daughter, as Ovetta warmly shares what appears to be her sobriety and newly recovered soul.
This brings us to the unanswered questions that trouble the play’s tenuous resolution. As Ovetta and Keyonna vacate their apartment after being evicted for non-payment of rent, we wonder: will the reconciliation between mother and daughter last, as they watch movies on the cheap handheld DVD player in the family car, now their new home? Will Keyonna’s break up with past fantasies hold when and if she moves on with Chantel? Or will Keyonna’s mother be tempted to escape old habits by the homelessness that confronts her? And finally, are these the questions that playwright C.A. Johnson even wants us to consider in All The Natalie Portmans? Or are they simply loose ends that the playwright failed to tie up?
