Review: STEW at Pasadena Playhouse

Women with dreams, missing men, barking dogs, greens and chicken neck bones and a sprinkling of Shakespeare’s RICHARD III Zora Howard’s STEW mixes a bunch of unusual ingredients, but the concoction proves to be a sumptuous one in Tyler Thomas’s production at The Pasadena Playhouse.

STEW is a one-room, four-character play in which three generations of Black women -  a woman known as Mama, her two daughters and her grand-daughter – prepare a dish for an annual church gathering. The occasion for that gathering is never explicitly stated, and we are left to suss it out, but it’s in some measure what ropes the Tucker women together and what could also rip them apart.

Even At 90 minutes, STEW – a Pulitzer Prize finalist - is a lot more complicated than it presents and benefits from multiple viewings. Even then, you might have questions about what has transpired. But a bit of ambiguity is a good thing especially when you have actors like Roslyn Ruff, Samantha Miller, Jasmine Ashanti and especially LisaGay Hamilton to muddy the creative waters.

Our scene is a hot day in Mt. Vernon, New York. We’re in the kitchen, Mama’s kitchen. To call her the matriarch of the Tucker household feels reductive. Mama rules the kitchen, the house and everything else, sometimes with reason, sometimes with guilt, often with a fist of iron. Her daughter, Nelly, (Ashanti) is about to turn 18 and can’t wait to get the hell out, along with her boyfriend. Nelly’s older sister, Lillian (Ruff) has returned to with her pre-teen daughter, Lil’ Mama (Miller) and son Junior (who we never meet), ostensibly to help make the stew and represent at church. Her husband is supposed to join her, but Lilian is vague about when he will show up, and Mama is not one to be disappointed or stood-up. Especially not on this day.

Mama gave birth to Lillian at 17 which gives the relationship between Nelly and her older sister Lillian a mother-daughter edge while teen-age Nelly and her pre-teen niece, Lil’ Mama, act more like siblings. No matter the age or life experience, positively every woman in this play thinks she knows best about all matters.

And there is a ton of tension, between mothers and daughters, between sisters. As guided by Thomas, and acted out by the play’s four actresses, these family members seem to know each other so well. They can push each other’s buttons and they can reunite for a common pursuit, not necessarily because they love (or even like) each other. In this context, with these people, it’s what family members do. A mother gives birth to a child and the newborn infant looks up with eyes that say, as Mama so eloquently expresses, “we doing this?” To which the only reply is, “I guess we are.”

Lillian is the catalyst for much of STEW’s conflict, and Ruff infuses her with an artful blend of resentment, edge and loyalty. Ashanti gives Nelly a jolt of knowing-the-ropes wisdom that is probably beyond the character’s years, but life in Mama’s house – and also in this neighborhood – will have that effect on a person. Lil’ Mama is still young and has the greatest potential to break free. In Miller’s performance, we see the basis of both a good soldier and a potential deserter.

Then there’s LisaGay Hamilton.

There will be playgoers who may remember this marvelous actress not just for her TV and film work, but for her work in the plays of August Wilson and Athol Fugard both on Broadway in Los Angeles.  Aged here to an indeterminate and unrecognizable age, Hamilton creates a character who is resolute enough in her beliefs to stare down everything that the God she so devoutly believes in can throw at her. Well, almost everything. A tough piece of work who loves in her own way, Mama is STEW’s bitter beating heart. In Hamilton’s hands, she is consistently fascinating.

STEW is the first post-Sondheim celebration play in a most successful season by The Pasadena Playhouse. Bookending the musical stuff with the splendid production of Martyna Majok’s SANCTUARY CITY, STEW leaves us eager for what Danny Feldman and team will cook up next.

STEW plays through Aug. 6 at The Pasadena Playhouse.

Photo of LisaGay Hamilton and Roslyn Ruff by Mike Palma

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