By Carol Davis
LA JOLLA –There’s something inherently wrong about watching three naïve sixteen year old African American high school girls, or any other children for that matter, chatter and plan about the parties and gifts they would get if they all decided to have babies at the same time. As the mother of three daughters (now young women), and a daughter myself, it doesn’t take a nuclear scientist to know how real the possibility of children having children is. “…The U.S. teen pregnancy rate is one of the highest in the developed world.”
Perhaps it wasn’t unusual then that in 2008 playwright Kristen Greenidge happened to see an article in the Gloucester, Mass., press alleging that several girls (read 17) all got pregnant at the same time forming what some dubbed a pregnancy pact. The idea about mothers and daughters and inner city communities in need of a village began to take shape for the playwright from that article. After being approached by the La Jolla Playhouse and in co-commission with Theatre Masters several ideas and seminars pushed the initiative forward with growth and development beginning in Aspen, Colorado.
The La Jolla Playhouse in association with Playwrights Horizon and Women’s Project Productions is mounting the world premiere production of Kristen Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar with direction by Rebecca Taichman (Sleeping Beauty Wakes). Greenidge zeros in on three gals who enter into a pact of their own, one similar to the newspaper item. Now San Diego audiences get a chance to be the first to see and experience Milk Like Sugar.
The play opens in a tattoo parlor on Annie’s birthday. Tattoo artist, Antwoine (LeRoy McClain is at ease and conveys a steady confidence) has already decorated Talisha and Margie. From the get go we learn that Margie (Nikiya Mathis) is already pregnant. While trying to convey how easy it was she assures her two best friends Talisha and Annie that she and her boyfriend just tried once (“Yeah, y’all. You two do this too and we have one big old huge shower for all three of us, y’all.”). Annie (Angela Lewis) and Talisha (Cherise Boothe) seem intrigued with the idea, especially Talisha (Just call me T.) who bullies Annie into buying the idea even though she is reticent to go along.
Naïveté goes a long way when caught up with the idea of a moment. When you have nothing, having a baby will give unconditional love and that about sums up what’s missing in their lives. (“Yo, Won’t need no moms no more if we each have a tiny little baby made just for us, right?”) With the love of a baby to call their own (“We all have babies we could be like strong and fierce just like that Just like lions. Hunting around at night”) and all the talk of the gifts they would accumulate from baby showers, it was game on.
But something happened on the way to getting pregnant for Annie. Her choice of a donor in the form of Malik, (J. Mallory-McCree is just right as the college bound boyfriend) a good-looking senior she’s had a crush on isn’t buying the idea. He is more interested in getting himself out of that world and tries to coax Annie to do the same by talking about opportunities not taken. During that first encounter they spend some awkward moments together.
At another meeting he brings along a telescope for her to see what’s out in the universe beyond their small community and he tells her again that he is not going to go along with her plan but instead he’s off to college. He assures her that she too can do better too. She stalks off doubting and questioning his motives.
Following a chance meeting with another new school friend, Keera, (Adrienne C. Moore beautifully convincing) a Bible-thumping born again believer, Annie is certain that if she can change her situation at home (Keera tells of her euphoric home life) and put a little religion into her family things will get better. Still annoyed with Malik, heady from her afternoon with Keera and with bounce in her step, she faces a storm at home after learning that her mother lost her job.
Myrna, Annie’s mother (Tonya Perkins gives a heart stopping performance) cleans offices at night and keeps a notebook of things she would some day like to write about. When we do meet up with her she is exhausted and disinterested in anything Annie. While it appears that Annie has some good ideas of her own, her destiny seems to flow only through her mother, the only parent we get to meet, but she is out to lunch, too tired to even take the cigarette out from between her lips while she talks. It’s terribly frustrating to know it will take more than Malik to encourage Annie to reach for the stars, touch the universe and grow as he is prepared to do.
When Annie does tries to talk to her mother about Keera and going to church she lets out an angry outburst of vitriol, verbally shooting down any ounce of confidence Annie might have had built up about college, Keera or any future family plans. This, the least predictable of altercations in a rather predictable and repetitive story, sets a new bar for Annie and unfortunately, ‘normalcy’ resumes. Vanishing like a bird in the night, Annie is off and running right to Antwoine who is more than willing to help Annie in her quest to have a baby. And the beat goes on.
Now in a robust but not quite finished piece director Taichman and company manage to present another stark chapter of ‘what happens in the hood stays in the hood’, in Milk Like Sugar. Performances range from perfectly understandable to what the hell are they talking about? Unfortunately for this reviewer it was difficult to understanding so much of the lingo. These ears could not find a filter and so much of the chatter between the three girls was missed.
That said there was enough understood especially by Angela Lewis’ Annie that was as frustrating by what she didn’t say as by what she did say. As the seemingly most intelligent of the three, I wanted more from her. Cherise Boothe’s Talisha has her best moments telling about her experience with her boyfriend (whom we later find out beats her) and their purchasing new cell phone with all the bells and whistles on it. Nikiya Mathis’s Margie is perfectly suited as the happy go lucky, I’m happy in the dark as long as I have my cell personality.
But the one scene I will take with me every time I speak with my own girls is the one that blew the fuse between Annie and her mother that seemed to come from left field. Tonya Perkins hit a home run with her performance showing raw nerves and decades of pent up frustration from years of her own experiences and Angela Lewis’ response was on the money.
Mimi Lien’s set design of a moving brick wall set as the backdrop worked on many levels especially when it moved in on the action giving a claustrophobic feel when needed. What unnerved me were the bright orange neon lighting (Justin Townsend) stripes running along the bricks that were almost blinding. Andre Pluess’ sound design is on the money and Toni-Leslie James costume design is contemporary perfect.
Would that we could see a sequel and/or follow up as a sign that perhaps things might have changed. Or shall we become the village needed to make a change? Milk Like Sugar isn’t a pretty play but can and will start a conversation.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through Sept. 25th
Organization: La Jolla Playhouse
Phone: 858-550-1010
Production Type: Comedy/Drama
Where: 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, UCSD Campus
Ticket Prices: $35.00-$69.00
Web: lajollaplayhouse.org
Venue: Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre