Western Michigan University Theatre recently opened its production of The House That Will Not Stand. WMUK’s Gordon Bolar has this review.
Marcus Gardley’s play, set in New Orleans during 1836, depicts the struggles of several women to define and experience freedom. After their white father’s untimely death, three sisters, all free women of color, vie for independence, and fulfilment under the watchful eye of their mother, Beatrice Albans, portrayed in a powerful performance by Dwandra Nickole Lampkin.
The House That Will Not Stand has much in common with Federico Garcia Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba.” Gardley’s script, however, is not as somber or claustrophobic. It also features a mother less stifling and more nuanced than the matriarch in Lorca’s play.
The success of WMU Theatre’s enchanting production lies partly in Gardley’s vigorous dialogue and lively interaction of characters from a bygone era. More importantly, director Dee Dee Batteast’s ability to find humor, joy, and hope in this coming-of-age story about emancipation, lifts the evening into a series of serendipitous, and revelatory moments, despite the specters of slavery, economic ruin, and murder.
The word “House” has little to do with the physical structure of the Alban family’s inherited mansion. Instead the implied instability in the play’s title refers to the tenuous emotional bonds between family members, and the 19th century social system of placage, a financial arrangement for sexual favors between wealthy white men and women of color.
David Nofsinger’s open set design is, appropriately, free of solid walls or doors. It is framed by swinging iron gates and guarded by a haunting portrait of the deceased father, as well as by a ghostly Spanish Moss-draped live oak looming behind high storm shutters, and thin black lace curtains that reveal more than they hide about the oppressive world outside.
Sulaiman Rahman As-Salaam’s atmospheric lighting accommodates numerous fluid scene shifts across the proscenium stage of the Shaw Theatre. As-Salaam endows the darkened, decaying background behind the characters with an unnatural phosphorescent glow of green and purple.
The production’s set and lighting evoke the threats of a secretive past and rotting social order that imperil the future of Beatrice and family. The surprising adjustments made by each character to these twin challenges provide a large measure of the evening’s fun and suspense.
An endearing feature of Lampkin’s Beatrice is the wily resourcefulness her character displays against archrival, La Veuve, portrayed by Kiara Gilmore. Their witty repartee, punctuated by gestures of cane and hand-held fan, suggest only a few of the weapons necessary for survival in a society that devours its own.
A scene from WMU Theatre's "The House That Will Not Stand"
Arise Rock, as daughter, Agnes, is not without resources either. She enlists the help of younger sister Odette, played by Nadia Rawlins, to slip the strictures of mother, for a forbidden masked rendezvous, at the Quadroon ball. Middle sister, Maude Lynn, played by Holly Berman-Carter, plaintively cries to Jesus for martyrdom as she is left behind.
After the lighter-skinned Agnes lectures Odette on the lesser value of dark brown skin, Odette hatches a plan to one-up her sister at the coming soiree. Both actors show growth in the arc of their characters, as well as comic ability, in their respective journeys.
One of the play’s most intriguing scenes occurs between the loquacious house slave, Makeda, in a mercurial performance by Kayla Lynn, and Beatrice’s sister, Marie, energetically played by Treasure Rose. Rose convinces us her character is connected to the spirit world, as she conjures the deceased family patriarch into Makeda’s body to reveal a dark secret.
While residents of Beatrice’s household find their respective paths of escape from that which shackles them, Dwandra Nickole Lampkin’s gritty, steadfast role provides the rock that each character must run from, or cling to.
The key element of Lampkin’s Beatrice lies less in her command of those around her than it does in her command of the situation at hand. Lampkin presents a seasoned survivor who has come to terms with the price of freedom, its true cost, and the value of those in her house.
The harsh realization for audiences today might be that this value is sometimes measured in dollars and cents. Nevertheless, this enlightening opportunity to view a neglected piece of American history continues onstage this weekend.