BWW Reviews: FOREVER in New Haven

Forget the fiercest winter wind. Dael Orlandersmith will blow you away in the world premiere of her new one-woman show, Forever.

This is Orlandersmith's fourth play to be produced by the Long Wharf Theatre, following The Blue Album (with David Cale), The Gimmick and Yellowman. She is going strong with Forever, a dramatic memoir of a woman who must come to terms with a difficult relationship with her late mother. Sure, many mothers and daughters have their ups and downs, but rarely like this one. Beula resented her daughter since birth because the scars from her C-section will always be a reminder that her beauty was marred. She is downright cruel, constantly berating and manipulating her daughter when she bothers to pay any attention to her. Even her reaction to her daughter's being raped was twisted. Anyone who has read Wally Lamb's 1992 novel, She's Become Undone, will recognize Dolores Price's mother on steroids.

The 80 minute play, which is performed without interruption, takes place at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Dael's character went there to visit the spiritual family she created of artists, writers and musicians. The one gift that Beula gave her daughter was a love of poetry and books. Literature was a temporary escape, offering sanity, peace, civility, love, respect, sobriety, gentleness, beauty, power, and acceptance. It is no coincidence that her spiritual family members were buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Shortly after Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor, he declared that "every citizen has the right to be buried regardless of race or religion."

Still, her mother haunts her. Even at the cemetery, she hears her mother ridiculing her, her mother's self-absorption, her mother's charm when interacting with others. She is drawn to a young woman from a distance, and then realizes later that she even looks like her mother. And she finally accepts her mother -- the equivalence of Dolores Price's trying to rescue a beached whale.

The play is meant to be more of a memoir than an autobiographical work. Even if it were pure fiction, it is immensely powerful and convincing, and Orlandersmith's performance is mesmerizing. You feel as if you were eavesdropping on someone's therapy session and you don't dare breathe. You want to pick Orlandersmith's brain on how to survive. "I wonder if we, any of us, ever get it right," she says, trying to understand and forgive her mother.

Neel Keller, who encouraged Orlandersmith to write this amazing play, directed it with great sensitivity. Some of the storytelling is grim and, in the wrong hands, could be used for shock value. Takeshi Kata's set design is economical - a table and chairs on a simple wood stage, with photos of the playwright's family on the walls around it. It is beautifully lit by Mary Louise Geiger, capturing the humbleness of a place where people pay tribute to the dead. Kay Voyce's simple costume is fluid and flattering. Bless Adam Phalen for his perfect sound. You don't want to miss anything in this show.

Forever runs only through February 1 at the Long Wharf Theatre, Stage II, 222 Sargent Drive in New Haven. For more information, call 203-787-4282 or visit www.longwharf.org. Orlandersmith's story is heart-wrenching, but you will feel privileged to see it and to see her in it.

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