Alice Childress was a socially proactive woman, dedicated to both civil and women’s rights. In 1955, her “Trouble in Mind” was a popular and critical success off-Broadway and Arena Stage’s production of it proves why. “Trouble in Mind” pictures a recently integrated theater group tackling a play about race in 1957. The result is a mass of misunderstandings, insults and sleights that sets everyone associated with the production at odds with one another and simultaneously reveals a great deal about each person involved.
The play begins as a black actress, Wiletta Meyer (the incomparable E. Faye Butler), arrives for a rehearsal of a Broadway show, followed by a young actor, John Nevins (Brandon J. Dirden). Wiletta gives John some advice: “Show business is just business,” she says skeptically, trying to impress on him the impossibility of succeeding in theater.
| Onstage |
| ‘Trouble in Mind’ |
| Where: Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW |
| When: Through Oct. 23 |
| Info: $48 to $85; 202-488-3300; arenastage.org |
Gradually the rest of the cast gathers: a naive white ingenue, Judy Sears (Gretchen Hall); a second black actress, Millie Davis (Starla Benford); and an older black male, Sheldon Forrester (Thomas Jefferson Byrd). They’re on the way to being well acquainted by the time the director, Al Manners (Marty Lodge), arrives.
Manners mistakenly considers himself a liberal. He sees the “race situation” as “dynamic” and “explosive” and is delighted to have found a script that will break free from previous hypocritical works. In fact, “Chaos in Belleville,” an anti-lynching play, is no different from earlier, racist melodramas, full of cliches and stereotyped roles.
The real fireworks happen in Act II, when Wiletta, who plays the mother of a grown son, objects to what the playwright has written. Butler is brilliant as the firebrand actress who claims she knows better than the playwright what a mother would allow her son to do.
The confrontation leads to a larger criticism of the roles assigned to black female actors: There is the maid and the nanny, supposed to give up her life to take care of another woman’s children while neglecting her own. The black actors begin to argue among themselves and the director reveals the racism at the core of his personality.
Irene Lewis smoothly directs an outstanding cast. Butler, Benford and Forrester are particularly impressive. David Korins’ evocative set is a cavernous, Broadway rehearsal hall. Catherine Zuber’s clothes are marvelously detailed re-creations of 1950s fashions, complete with hats and gloves.
“Trouble in Mind” is a richly embroidered work, with great humor as well as much depth in its portrayal of character and historical period. With this sensitive revival, Arena Stage has succeeded in highlighting Childress’ concerns with equality and has also achieved one of its own stated missions: to “engage audiences in the history, breadth and legacy of the American theater.”
