Review: AND SHE WAS LOVED at Black Rose Theater

Black Rose Theater could not have chosen a more personal work for its inaugural production. And She Was Loved, a world premiere written by Austin’s First Poet Laureate and Hall of Fame, Zell Miller III, is a roughly 90-minute blend of theatre, poetry, jazz, movement, memory, and imagination. At its heart is something much simpler: a son missing his mother.

The play pays homage to Miller's late mother, Vernell Miller, and was also inspired by the loss of his longtime mentor and "theatrical mother," theater artist Laurie Carlos. The two women died only 16 months apart, leaving Miller to wrestle with grief that, by his own account, he carried for years. Rather than tell their stories through a conventional narrative, Miller takes us inside that grief, where memories surface, thoughts collide, and imagination offers somewhere else to go.

That somewhere is the Land of Never, Miller's reimagining of Peter Pan's Neverland. Miller becomes Pan, his daughter Marley becomes Shadow, and Siobhan Alexis is G, his version of Tinker Bell. Grief itself takes the role of Captain Hook. The metaphor gives Miller a playground in which to explore loss without being bound by reality or a traditional plot. When the real world becomes too painful, Pan retreats into imagination. Eventually, however, he has to find his way out.

Miller describes And She Was Loved as a choreopoem, and that is probably the best way to approach it. Poetry, contemporary movement, jazz, hip-hop, tap, family history, politics, Black culture, and a healthy dose of Austin weirdness all find their way onto the stage. At times it feels less like watching a conventional play than stepping inside the mind of a poet as he tries to make sense of something that may never entirely make sense.

His personal grief also exists within the experience of being a Black man in America. The play touches on politics, race, and the reality of living in a country and a moment when Black lives remain at risk. Those concerns are not separate from the story of his mother or his family. They are part of the world he carries with him, alongside tradition, memory, fear, humor, and love.

Perhaps the most affecting layer comes through Miller's daughter, Marley Miller, who plays both his daughter and his Shadow. A work born from a son's grief for his mother becomes, at the same time, a story about a father's relationship with his daughter. Marley is also Vernell's granddaughter, placing three generations within the same theatrical conversation. Parenthood stretches in both directions, toward the people who raised us and the people we are now responsible for raising.

Zell Miller III is a natural performer. He moves with a combination of contemporary, jazz, and hip-hop styles while delivering poetry with such immediacy that it sometimes feels as though he is writing the play in front of us. He isn't, of course, but the performance feels spontaneous enough to make us believe he might be. His thoughts tumble into clever rhymes, movement takes over when language isn't enough, and humor can suddenly give way to anger or pain.

Marley Miller, herself a poet, brings youthfulness and emotion to the stage, serving as an effective counterpoint to her father. Their real relationship inevitably adds another layer to their scenes together, particularly in a work so concerned with what we inherit and what we pass along.

Siobhan Alexis doesn't say a word, but she has plenty to say. Her character communicates through her face, her body, and especially her feet. Alexis' tap sequences become their own language, sometimes seeming to answer Miller's words with rhythm. Her performance is enchanting, and the decision to let G communicate without conventional dialogue fits beautifully within a piece looking for different ways to express feelings that are difficult to put into words.

The set reflects another passion at the heart of Black Rose Theater: reading. Books surround the performers, creating an appropriate home for a company founded by a poet and interested in the relationship between written language and performance. Even the company’s name carries Miller’s mother into this new chapter. Black Rose Theater takes its name from the black rose tattoo on Vernell Miller’s ankle, a symbol of rebellion and freedom.

And She Was Loved is not a traditional play, nor does it try to be. It is poetry with bodies and rhythm, memory filtered through imagination, and an exploration of the strange ways people learn to live with loss. It pays homage not only to the people we have loved and lost, but to parenthood, Black culture, family traditions, and the stories that survive from one generation to another. Grief may have inspired the piece, but grief does not get the final word.

Something is fitting about Black Rose Theater beginning its life with a work this personal. And She Was Loved introduces an Austin company willing to experiment with form, celebrate poetry and movement, center Black voices, honor the people who came before, and embrace some of the weirdness that makes Austin's artistic community what it is.

It is a unique piece of theatre and a promising beginning for Black Rose Theater. If And She Was Loved is the seed, I can't wait to see what grows from this first rose.

And She Was Loved
Written by Zell Miller III

Now playing through September 12th, 2026
Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00 PM

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