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Most playwrights wind up forgotten.
But when that lost fame returns, it returns all in a rush.
Despite the prim shirtwaist dresses on her characters, the playwright wasnt talking about a distant past.
(The play is from 1963; the Supreme Court wouldnt rule onLovingv.Virginiauntil 1967.)
you’ve got the option to see why they worried.
She cuts deep withWedding Band,exposing anti-Blackness down at the American bone.
Its Julia Augustines tenth anniversary with her beau, and shes just moved into a new neighborhood.
Childress is particularly good at showing us complexity in just a few strokes.
Childress is an unswayable realist; she doesnt believe in any progress that requires the participation of white society.
If you just gotta believe somethin, it mays well be that, she tells him, grimly.
Childress does, though, believe a woman can tear injustice out of herownlife by the roots.
You start on the patch of earth where you stand; you cast out what does not serve you.
Alphonso Hornes hypnotic jazz compositions melt the borders of each scene away from the real.
At one end of this central strip, Julias furniture and suitcases huddle against the grasss soft fringe.
Even the interiors placement doesnt stay consistent.
Its a tidal place (the set provides this too), both salt and fresh.
Childresssplot, though, needs literal boundaries to make its storytelling clear.
According to the dialogue, we are very much in town.
Theres a little slippage, though, in how Timpo handles the immensely tricky transformation of Julia.
Childresss text is bleak.
Julia (and Timpo) find hope over there, wading in the water.
The image is gorgeous; the joy is palpable.
They just have to hush the play a little to create it.
Wedding Bandis at Theatre for a New Audiences Polonsky Shakespeare Center through May 22.
