Review: Dael Orlandersmith Explores the Impact of Family -- Both Biological and Chosen -- in FOREVER, at Portland Center Stage

As soon as Dael Orlandersmith walks into the room, you feel the force of her presence. This is despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that she's not even facing the audience, but rather examining a series of old photographs pinned to the wall. She makes her way around the room, eventually climbing onto the stage, looking out into the audience, and welcoming you to the theatre. And at that point, you're pretty much done for. Ms. Orlandersmith is a performer of the highest order, and you'd be best to take a deep breath now, because you might forget to for the next 80 minutes.

FOREVER is a memoir play based on Orlandersmith's horrific childhood with her manipulative, alcoholic mother. (Though Orlandersmith is quick to point out that this is theatre and not autobiography, saying, "Certainly there are facts that are involved, but it is my impressions and thoughts.")

The play opens at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, the final resting place of many of art's most famous figures, including Oscar Wilde, Honoré de Balzac, Edith Piaf, and, significantly for Orlandersmith, Jim Morrison. Orlandersmith is there to commune with the artists who make up her chosen family -- those who helped her find and shape her own art.

And then we're taken back to the beginning. Orlandersmith was born in 1959 by cesarean section -- a scar her mother, Beula, never forgave her for. When her father in died in 1963, Beula turned to alcohol, and Orlandersmith spent her childhood in Harlem alternately taking care of and being emotionally abused by her mother. Many of the stories she recounts are harrowing, particularly the story of a rape she experienced as a teenager. And Orlandersmith is angry.

But FOREVER isn't just about bad childhoods and anger. It's about art. Throughout the play, Orlandersmith talks about the music and the poetry that moved her -- you might even say that saved her. And about how even her soused, abusive mother played a role in her developing a love of art that -- along with influences from the great writers and performers now in Père Lachaise -- helped her become who she is today, or, as she puts it, helped her give birth to herself.

Regardless of how much of the play is true and how much is "impressions and thoughts," it's incredibly powerful. Orlandersmith deals with a lot of very personal, very difficult things, and while these things happened years ago, she performs them with such immediacy that you feel like you're witnessing her experience them all over again. One of the things that really stood out to me was the cadence of her delivery, which I can only describe as driving. It's spellbinding. You really might forget to breathe.

As for the production, I absolutely loved the lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger. The set is simple -- just a stage with a table and chairs, and pictures along the wall. Through just the lighting, Geiger takes us to Paris, to Harlem, to the East Village -- to the living room, the bedroom, the park across the street. The lighting is also instrumental in creating the play's many emotional ebbs and flows.

FOREVER is an excellent play and Orlandersmith is a superb performer. This show is a must-see. FOREVER runs through March 20. Get your tickets here: http://www.pcs.org/

Photo credit: Patrick Weishampel/blankeye.tv

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