The Column Online

ACTS OF LOVE

Written and Directed by Willie Holmes
Additional Directing by Byron Holder
Blacken Blues Theater
at the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival

WaterTower Theatre

CAST

ACT ONE: RELATIVITY OF LOVE
Diko - Patrick Lynwood Henry
Ramses - Chris Wyatt
Seattle - Carrie Harden

ACT TWO: CHANGE-
Wendell - Rage the Poet
Katherine - Laura Jennings
Adrianna - Renee Miche'al

ACT THREE: SIX SLOW SONGS
Ryan - Chris Wyatt
Elaine - Laura Jennings

ACT FOUR: REBOOT
Lisa - Renee Miche'al
James - Byron Holder
Rasheed - Rage the Poet
Time Keeper - Kimberly Cooper


Reviewed Performance: 3/8/2011

Reviewed by Carol Anne Gordon, Associate Critic for John Garcia's THE COLUMN

These four one-act plays explore very different scenarios of love, se*, and duty.

RELATIVITY OF LOVE shows a suicidal man who is having "metaphysical" s*x with a str*pper while hiding his unemployment from his wife.

SIX SLOW SONGS deals with a woman who re-appears in a man's life ten years after their one night stand to tell him that she became pregnant from that encounter and now that child has died.

CHANGE? profiles a black man who has to choose between his attraction to a white co-worker and his "cultural obligation" to marry a black woman.

REBOOT features a woman who is playing one man while another man is playing her, who is then offered a "re-do" of the last twenty-four hours so she can make her life turn out the way she wants it to.

But, despite their uncommon plots, they do have a common theme: they don't have happy endings.

REBOOT is my favorite of the four, for two reasons: first, the heroine regains her self-respect when the reboot of the last day reverses the way the two men treat her and makes her realize that neither man is right for her; and second, because the lead is played by Renee Miche'al, the best actor on stage throughout the evening. Her talent is head and shoulders above all the others'.

Special kudos to Additional Director Byron Holder and actor Rage the Poet, both of whom stepped into roles that they had not rehearsed when an actor in the cast was a no-show at curtain time. They are both to be commended for their commitment to "the show must go on"! Additionally, even though he was on-book, Holder gave a better performance than several actors in the cast, and Rage the Poet gave such a smooth (memorized) performance that I wasn't even aware it wasn't originally his role until I more carefully read the program.

ACTS OF LOVE
Blacken Blues Theater
at the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival
WaterTower Theatre

There are no further performances of this play at this festival.

For tickets to the festival, call the Box Office at 972-450-6232