Review: FURLOUGH’S PARADISE at Geffen Playhouse

a.k. payne’s West Coast premiere of FURLOUGH’S PARADISE is a lyrical look at envy, resentment, and perspective, and it serves a reminder that there is always hope even if offered only as glimmers.

Set in a United States great migration city in late 2017, cousins Mina (Kacie Rogers) and Sade (DeWanda Wise) grew up together, but their lives took very different paths. Mina attended Harvard and lives a successful life on the West Coast; Sade ended up in prison and is currently on furlough for three days before returning to finish a years-long sentence. She was set free to attend her mother’s funeral. Sade crashes at Mina’s second home for the duration and they come to realize that they have very different takes on their childhoods, igniting a powder keg of memories, regrets, grudges, and grievances.

That powder keg, however, doesn’t cause a nuclear explosion. payne smartly steers clear of melodrama, anchoring her characters in a hazy reality of their present as they learn they need to reconcile their pasts to be able to move into their futures. Incorporating dance and poetic dialogue, both characters are complex individuals, and the actors breathe life into them as organically as if they were them. payne really spends time with these women, so we truly get to know them and the damage and scars they suffered from their parents. They have an intricately woven relationship and there is such nuance from the words and the performances, it’s clear that no matter how much their lives have diverged there are still unbreakable bonds of blood and history.

Director Tinashe Kajese-Bolden allows the lyricism of the writing to take its time, giving the show a contemplative rhythm. Rogers and Wise give shades of gray to their respective characters, deepening them with every turn. The set of Mina’s house by Chika Shimizu is multilayered with shadows and secrets mirroring the story. Choreography by Dell Howlett and Naomi C. Walley adds dimension to the characters, the plot, and the experience. The only drawback is that the plot is sometimes difficult to follow. Much is hinted at or referenced only briefly (which simply means you must pay close attention throughout), though that also adds to the play’s sense of other worldliness.

Moving at a brisk 75 minutes, FURLOUGH’S PARADISE is a profoundly moving meditation on loss, the need to move on and the insidious nature of envy.

Photos by Jeff Lorch