Review: SHE at Antaeus Theatre Company

Developed in the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, Marlow Wyatt’s SHE is a moving, lyrical story about a bright, promising 13-year-old girl, SHE Soujourner Freeman (Camille Ariana Spirlin), who is looking anxiously to grow up, better herself, and get the hell out of the poor neighborhood she lives in. So when she receives a partial scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, she intends to let nothing stand in her way. But with her beleaguered single mother, Bernice (Karen Malina White), prioritizing her no-good gambler boyfriend, Mr. Lonnie (Jon Chaffin), aspiring writer SHE has to rely on her best friend, Davie (Lorenz Arnell), to both buoy her spirits and help her find her way.

Wyatt’s characterizations are deft when they could have been broad, which is a testament to her skill and confidence. Mr. Lonnie could easily have been a one-note, one-dimensional, shifty lech, but she gives him a humanity that is lacking in many such characters. The same can be said for Bernice, who could have simply been an inattentive mother, but here is infused with depth and complexity both on the page and through Malina White’s powerful presence and radiant performance. The dialogue has a poetic quality that reflects SHE’s dreaminess; she wishes to fly like a bird, which is only somewhat diluted by a corny animated bird that flits and flitters across the set periodically.

Director Andi Chapman (“Native Son,” “The Abuelas”) gets solid work out of her entire cast, including Gerard Joseph, who has only one scene but makes it memorable, keeping you guessing at his intentions throughout, and Veronica Thompson, in a supporting role as the town busybody, Miss Jane. But Spirlin and Arnell as the two children are astonishing, fully inhabiting their 13-year-old characters despite being adults. Spirlin is all wide-eyed intelligence, spirited, hopeful, and driven as she strives for bigger, better, faster, more. Arnell embodies the quintessential boy next door who genuinely cares for

her, becoming the heart of the show. In the end, however, it comes down to the relationship between SHE and Bernice that the story pivots around. Both of whom want better for SHE, both know she’s smart and deserves that shot at prep school, and, in grappling with that, both start to come of age and learn to fly.

The scenic design by Eli Sherlock presents SHE’s dingy apartment and building and the stoop and sidewalk out front, made up of a functional wall of doors, windows, and louvered shades of bleached wood. The blandness of the color sets a perfect tone for SHE’s life and what she’s trying to escape from. She doesn’t just want to fly, she wants colors, vibrancy in her life.

It’s a little simplistic how the story wraps up but that’s a minor complaint taking into consideration how superlative the rest of the show is and how lovely it is to spend time getting to know SHE. We should all aspire to have not just the dreams but the goals SHE has as well as the wherewithal to move toward them. We should all be so inspirational.

Photos by Jeff Lorch

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