Theater Review—

‘The Bluest Eye’ Is Long Wharf At Its Best

By Julie Stern

A popular kitchen wall hanging entitled “Children Learn What they live” warns that children who are continually scolded, criticized, abused or neglected will grow up to feel worthless and hateful. The message that they are undesirable to others because of their race, religion, appearance, or social class is crippling.

This fact lies at the heart of Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye, in which Claudia MacTeer recalls the saga of her childhood neighbor, Pecola Breedlove, who was so devastated by a progression of cruelties and indignities that she begged God to turn her eyes blue (to match the illustrations in her Dick and Jane readers) so that she will not be so ugly and hated in a white world.

In the novel, the account of 11-year old Pecola’s descent into madness is told through Claudia’s resentful recollections. In Lydia Diamond’s dramatization of Morrison’s work, Pecola becomes the central character in her own right: a sweet, magical innocent, craving love and friendship, even as she is subjected to ridicule, contempt, prejudice, and ultimately incestuous rape by her crazed, drunken father.

Originally commissioned by Chicago’s Steppenwulf Theater, this work has gone on to Broadway and been recreated on regional stages across the country. The current Long Wharf version, produced jointly with Hartford Stage, is a knockout:  gripping, moving, and absolutely wonderful.

Directed by Eric Ting, with remarkable scenic design by Scott Bradley, original music and sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen, and vocal and piano arrangements by Miche Braden, it recreates in rich detail, the world of an African-American neighborhood in the 1940s, in a small Ohio city.

In economic terms, Claudia and her sister Frieda are by no means well off, but they have each other as best friends, and two strict but caring and responsible parents. By contrast, the neighboring Breedloves are a dysfunctional mess, mixing abject poverty with alcoholism, physical abuse and continual fighting.

When Cholly Breedlove burns down the house in a drunken rage, Mrs. Breedlove moves into the house of the white people where she works, and Pecola is taken in as an act of temporary charity by the MacTeers, because, as Claudia notes, the worst thing that can happen is to be left out in the cold with nowhere to go.

This image is central to director Ting’s interpretation of the play. The use of thunder and lightning, rain and snow, even in scenes that are taking place indoors, serves to emphasize the sense of Pecola’s exposure to lacerating forces.

Spinning and singing, compulsively chanting the memorized lines from the Dick and Jane books, recounting her feelings of invisibility as she skirts the edges of the playground, or suffers the disdain of a white storekeeper who refuses to touch her black hand to take the three pennies she offers for candy, Pecola wins our hearts.

In a haunting performance, Adepero Oduye absorbs each new blow. A light-skinned classmate mocks her as an ugly “blackie.” Her own mother dismisses her as “nobody” and chases her off when she dares to visit the house where Mrs Breedlove works, and sees her doting lovingly on the white child who lives there. And in the cruelest scene of all, expelled from school and ostracized for having been impregnated by Cholly, she is exploited by an evil huckster and tricked into poisoning an old dog she loved because it was always glad to see her.

At the same time, Morrison’s novel and Diamond’s play also capture the complex background of the story — from the history of trauma and suffering that explain, but do not justify — the Breedloves’ monstrous behavior, to the sense of community and social order that enable the MacTeers to survive with dignity and self respect.

Bobbi Baker is toughly resilient as Claudia, who rips apart her Shirley Temple doll and excoriates Bojangles for dancing with a white child in the movie. Miche Braden has a remarkable voice to go along with her musical arrangements, in the role of Mrs MacTeer.

Leon Addison Brown is more tormented than evil as Cholly. Oni Faida Lampley chills the heart as Mrs Breedlove. (Editor’s Note: Ms Lampley was injured during the April 6 evening performance and has since been replaced for the remainder of the production by JoAnna Rhinehart.)

Ellis Foster is multi-talented in the dual role of the huckster, Soaphead, and Mr MacTeer, and Ronica V. Reddick is strong as Claudia’s sister, Frieda.

This is Long Wharf at its best, and a performance not to be missed.

(This production runs through Sunday, April 20, with performances Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 7, and matinees also Saturday at 3 pm and Sunday at 2. A special Pre-Play Intro will precede Saturday’s matinee.

Call 203-787-4282 for ticket details and reservations for this weekend’s final performances.)