Review: WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ALL THAT BEAUTY? A Deeply Moving Offering at CATF

First—be advised this critic doesn’t cry.  Much.  I’ve seen my share of miraculous endings and reconciliations, which melted everyone around me; but I somehow managed to keep my emotions in check.

So when I tell you that the climax of Donja R. Love’s beautifully performed, intergenerational play cycle, What Will Happen to All That Beauty? had this hardened critic thinking about making a quick detour to the men’s room to splash a little cold water on my face—rest assured you’ve got a story whose message will move you, and deeply.

Playwright Donja R. Love refers to Beauty as an offering, in the spiritual sense of the word; and it truly is one of the most uplifting cycles, in times of trouble and misunderstanding, we are likely to see.  The stage has seen its share of plays about AIDS, but few have focused on the disease’s devastating, and ongoing, impact in the African-American LGBTQ community.  Fewer still have found a way to remind us that through all their struggles—from the 1980’s to the present day—many in this community, long-suffering, and long subjected to abuse, have survived and thrived, with an abiding faith in their Creator.

Malika Oyetimein has marshalled a stellar cast, and guided this show with great care and compassion, beginning with the soaring oratory of Jerome Preston Bates—in pastor’s robes, as the Rev. Emmanuel Bridges, Senior.  Reverend Bridges preaches about beauty and its opposite, sacrifice—not ugliness, but sacrifice; because, as he says, “sometimes, for some of us, we must know sacrifice in order to achieve the beauty we are promised.” 

There is compassion and conviction in his voice, but as we are going to learn, that compassion has its limits when it comes to his son, Emmanuel Bridges, Jr.—who prefers to go by “J.R.” We soon find J.R. in the bedroom with his partner, Max, who is several months pregnant.  Because both of them also have same-sex lovers, and this being the 1980’s, Max needs J.R. to get tested for HIV, for her own protection and for that of their baby. 

A positive test result, devastating for the father-to-be, is tempered by J.R.’s encounter with Abdul, who like him is HIV-positive, and who like him was rejected by his family for who he is.  J.R. soon starts attending regular meetings with a support group for black men with HIV.  His relationship with Abdul soon grows intimate, but their time together is tragically cut short.  First Abdul, and then J.R. succumb to the disease—but not before J.R. makes a brief video for his son-to-be.  (The video will eventually resurface, but not without some controversy, in Part 2.)

Part 1 of "Beauty" begins in Flatbush, Brooklyn, in 1986—where J.R. and Max live—and for Part 2 shifts to Jackson, Mississippi—home to the Rev. Bridges—in 2016.  It is in Jackson that we meet Manny, who believes he is Rev. Bridges’ son, and watch him as he helps run a boarding house for HIV positive youth.  Manny’s housemate and lover, Elijah, has a fatalistic attitude about his condition, and it takes the intervention of a newcomer—a nurse named Maxine—before he is grudgingly persuaded to care for himself.

Maxine has a heart-breaking secret, which eventually comes to light and threatens to shatter the relationship Manny has with the man he thought was his father.  But we also find that the Rev. Bridges we encountered in 1986 has changed over the years; he has accepted Manny’s orientation and keeps in touch with him, in stark contrast to the way he shunned J.R. back in the day.  And for all his pastoral bombast there is a beauty, hidden deep in his relationship with Manny, which will guide the story to its deeply moving conclusion.

As the Reverend, Jerome Preston Bates lights a fire at the beginning of the cycle with his sermon on beauty and sacrifice—and reveals a changed heart in Part 2. Meanwhile as Maxine, Toni L. Martin navigates the passage of time in fascinating ways; her journey is the most complex of the cycle, and her interactions in Part 2 take on a special poignancy.

The script also calls for a doubling of roles between 1986 and 2016, reinforcing the idea of the cyclical nature of life.   As J.R. and Manny, Jude Tibeau unifies the production with his charm, his caring, as well as his love for life and for those around him.  As Abdul—J.R.’s lover—and Elijah—Manny’s—Danté Jeanfelix has the opportunity to reveal both self-assurance and self-doubt; Maxine’s efforts to get Elijah to take his meds makes for one of the funnier scenes here.  Keith Lee Grant, taking on the role of an elder mentor, is a study in contrasts as the business-like Troy (in Part 1) and the flamboyant head-of-household Reggie (in Part 2).

Luciana Stecconi's scenic design makes effective use of the wider space of the Frank Center stage, and Matthew Webb’s lighting design manages changes of scene and mood quite nicely indeed.  Nia Safarr Banks’ costumes range from the everyday to the joyously flamboyant, and Stephon Jamaal Dorsey’s sound design is filled with tunes familiar and ought-to-be-familiar, with Stevie Wonder’s “As” playing a pivotal role in the final moments of Part 2.

The play takes its title from a passage in James Baldwin’s novel, The Fire Next Time: “...I wondered, when all that vengeance was achieved, what will happen to all that beauty?”  Baldwin seems to say that revenge against oppression, however justified, has the risk of destroying the beauty that lies in the hearts the oppressed.  To survive and thrive requires holding onto that beautiful part of yourself, no matter what is done to you.  Easier to say, to be sure; but Donja R. Love wants us to see that it is possible in all of our lives.

Audience advisory:  This production contains strong language, nudity, intimacy, and conversations about death by suicide.

Production Photo:  Danté Jeanfelix and Jude Tibeau in What Will Happen to All That Beauty, Part 1 by Donja R. Love. Photo by Seth Freeman. 

Running Times:  Part 1:  2 hours.
                            Part 2:   90 minutes.
Please note that there is an extended Intermission between Parts 1 and 2,
for breaking bread (meal packages can be arranged ahead of time).

What Will Happen to All That Beauty? runs as a part of the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, through July 28 at the Frank Center, 260 University Drive, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, on the Shepherd University campus.

For tickets visit https://catf.org/buy-tickets/ .  You can also email the box office at boxoffice@catf.org or call them at 681-240-2283.

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