Review: HEAD OF PASSES; When It Pours, Phylicia Rashad Reigns

At the end of his drama inspired by the Book of Job, Head of Passes, playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney's offers his leading lady, the extraordinarily powerful Phylicia Rashad, a roughly six-page monologue where, surrounded by flooding waters and a crumbling rooftop, she crisscrosses a multitude of emotions in a final conflict with the highest love of her life.

"Let Us do this now, the right way, hey?," she grumbles to the almighty like a wounded tiger who's fighting her losing battle until the end. The thrillingly textured Rashad then takes the audience on a breathtaking ride through anger, devotion, humility and stunning defiance. If Head of Passes doesn't quite achieve the greatness that its star does, the production's final twenty minutes is surely one of this season's most memorable passages.

The title refers to the southernmost tip of the Mississippi River, where it branches off in three directions into the Gulf of Mexico. G.W. Mercier's comfortable and stylish set depicts the home of the widowed Shelah (Rashad), which will eventually show signs of being built on unstable marshlands. The heavy rain that continues throughout the play pours in through leaks in the ceiling and a good amount of the first act's humor comes from attempts to catch the water in pots and how unsuspecting visitors get soaked as soon as they walk in.

The lady of the house has been hiding the fact that she's been coughing up blood and suffering from dizzy spells. The pleasantly dweeby Dr. Anderson (Robert Joy), the play's only white character, feels it's important that Shelah let her family know how serious her condition is, but she insists that she will take care of the matter only if and when she is ready.

Under Tina Landau's energetic direction, the first act plays like a conventional family comedy/drama. Shelah's sons (Francois Battiste and J. Bernard Calloway) have arranged for a birthday party for their mother that night, calling for longtime family domestic employee Creaker (John Earl Jelks) and his son Crier (Kyle Beltran) to make the preparations and serve. Shelah she has no interest in celebrating birthdays, though she's happy for the company of her funny and frisky pal, Mae (Arnetia Walker).

Sensing her remaining time is brief, Shelah performs acts of kindness to insure her loved ones are better off when she goes. The deepest wounds in need of healing belong to her addicted step-daughter, Cookie (Alana Arenas), who was born out of her husband's affair and has two sons of her own.

The weather gets worse, the house shows signs of caving in and the second act brings tragic news, increasing Shelah's confused wrath until it overflows into Shakespearean proportions. The first two-thirds of Head of Passes may seem too comfortably familiar, but when it pours, Rashad reigns.