Atlanta, GA

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing the play In the Red and Brown Water on the Hertz Stage at the Alliance Theater. It was fantastic! What a fresh script and a talented cast. The storyline follows the character Oya coming to womanhood and the challenges she encounters with losing and discovering love, seeing the world change around her while she seems to remain stagnant in the outside world but not so much inside.

This play will have you laughing out loud with Tyler Perry-esque black family comedy and sympathizing with Oya’s challenges into adulthood. An added extra bonus for me and all ladies attending the performance has to be the beautiful men in the cast and their reoccurring loss of shirts….washboard stomachs and inappropriate, yet entertaining dance moves. Speaking of inappropriate, this play is not for children. There is adult language and content – which always makes it more entertaing for adults anyways.

The Hertz stage is the smaller black box theater located at the bottom of the Art Center. Kudos to the director for that making it not seem like there was a bad seat in the house to this sold out audience.

Although, all performances from the cast were very strong. I feel like I must mention the lead – Kianne Muschett. She portrays such sweetness to Oya. You really want to be her friend and she would likely return the friendship. From kindness, to independent feminity – Kianne allows the audience to follow the growth of the character.

The script and the direction of this play is what really blew me over. The play was written by Tarell Alvin McCraney. This script was the winner of the 2007 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition.

One issue I had with the script was the time frame. In the second half, it seemed like the time period went farther into the future to present day. The first half seemed in a different time period, like the 70s, with the State track coach so casually coming to a race and inviting Oya to attend their college. There’s also no other major society marker that shows the time period as strongly as the second half does with Oya’s trip to a modern day club with current hip hop music played and men dancing with their shirts off to more current risqué type dance moves. I wish I had felt like I was in that time period in the first half.

But I love the comedic banter of the show – it keeps it moving – it kept the script fresh – and it kept me very entertained.

I liked the youthful main character. It was very relatable.

As a native to Atlanta, I must admit I haven’t seen a show at the Alliance since school age field trips. If their shows have been anything like I saw last night with In the Red and Brown Water, than I have hugely missed out on the best theater in Atlanta. Alliance Theater was the recipient of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award – and I completely understand why they won it. They’re the best of Atlanta and apparently the best of the nation. In the Red and Brown Water upholds that standard.

In the Red and Brown Water runs till February 24. For more information or to reserve tickets, visit Alliance’s website.

Tickets are $30 each and it’s general admission.

For a list of the Best of Atlanta from 2007 - view this previous entry.