Review: Capital T's THE BROTHERS SIZE Simply Beautiful

Capital T Theatre's latest production, THE BROTHERS SIZE, is just about as pretty as theatre should be. Unpretentious and clean in production value and scale, it's a wisely chosen script for an intimate space, timely and personal, rhythmic and poetic, simultaneously familiar and distant.

The story is not complicated. Oshoosi Size (Sean Christopher) is recently out of prison and living with his brother Ogun (John Christopher) while he transitions into freedom. Elegba (Delante Keys) is of the same litter as Oshooshi, a friend who was jailed at the same time as Oshooshi. In THE BROTHERS SIZE, Playwright Terell Alvin McCraney gives us Ogun and Elegba, two minor characters from an earlier play, IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER, although THE BROTHERS SIZE stands on it's on. Oshooshi is introduced in THE BROTHERS SIZE and this story is his. A story of his struggle to try and live the straight and narrow under the influence of a brother who is strong and serious. Ogun's love for OShoosi is fierce, as Oshoosi's is for Ogun. Oshoosi is young, curious, naive, and Elegba plays to these weaknesses. Oshoosi struggles with doing what's right and doing what's fun while the two forces represented in Ogun and Elegba compete for his attention.

Playwright McCraney never lets us get too involved in this immensely intimate story, for Oshoosi, Ogun and Elegba are representative of the Orisha - spirit guides that come from a system of spirituality practiced in West Africa and dispersed throughout the diaspora in such places as Puerto Rico, Haiti and Cuba. They represent the Warrior (Ogun) the Hunter (Oshoosi) and the Messenger (Elegba). In THE BROTHERS SIZE McCraney creates a drum like cadence and it feels as if the actors are performing an epic poem. Even the stage directions are read out loud by the actors. The Yoruba believe that the goal is not to lose yourself in performance when you invoke the Gods, but to evoke the God in yourself. It's a powerful notion and each of these actors seems to understand it beautifully.

As Ogun, John Christopher is big, powerful, almost lumbering in his portrayal, which makes his willingness to express his profound love for Oshoosi that much more vulnerable and intimate. Sean Christopher plays Oshoosi with an effortless relaxed innocence that belies the struggle he works through in his dreams. Delante Keys is wily and charming as Elegba, his face inherently mischievous. While these particular efforts are not to be dismissed, the real gift of this piece is in the confidence each of these men bring to the performance space. They seem to embody the meta of evoking "the God in yourself" that McCraney intends with this piece.

Jason Phelps directs THE BROTHERS SIZE with seamless ease, and if I wanted for anything it would have been a sharper delineation between an actor reciting a line as an actor and that of a character. I missed a few lines that were rushed opening night, but it's a minor quibble - this will shake itself out through another performance or two. Scenic and light design (Mark Pickell, Natalie George) is underplayed and unobtrusive, simple and undistracting so that we are effortlessly focused on Oshoosi, Ogun and Elegba.

There was a small crowd present for opening night, which I must admit, I sincerely hope changes. This show ought not fly under the radar of theatre goers in Austin. Its diversity of story and style is reason enough to see it, but it's also performed and directed with great talent and commitment. It hits all the marks for great theatre, and shouldn't be missed.

THE BROTHERS SIZE

by Tarrell Alvin McCraney

Capital T Theatre

Thursdays-Saturdays,

October 26 - November 18, 2017

Hyde Park Theatre

511 West 43rd Street

Austin, TX, 78751

Tickets $20 and VIP $30 available online via BuyPlayTix

Running time 1 hour 45 minutes with no intermission

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