BWW Reviews: LIFT Draws Crowds in Final Week at Crossroads Theater

Founded in 1978, the Crossroads Theater Company has prided itself on delivering honest and positive portrayals of the African American experience.

Teaming up with world renowned author Walter Mosley who also wrote Devil in a Blue Dress, Crossroads current production Lift, directed by Marshall Jones III, explores the inevitable emotions and truths exposed when people are put in desperate situations.

While we are introduced to several characters throughout the piece including Noni (Shavonna Banks) and Mr. Resterly (Martin Kushner), the story revolves around Tina Pardon (MaamaYaa Boafo) and Theodore "Big Time" Southmore (Biko Eisen-Martin). During an ascent to their offices in a high-rise building in New York the strangers Tina and Theodore, find themselves trapped in an elevator following a disaster.

The simple set, which consists of a suspended and beautifully assembled elevator, designed by Andrei Onegin, houses the action for the duration of the play.

The actors keep the audience totally engaged although the dialogue is sometimes wordy. The life and death aspect of the characters situation can use a little more commitment from the actors as it causes the audience to disconnect emotionally. Yet these minor issues are made up for by the actors physicality when tackling the elevator in the second act.

The play is both unique and clever. Even the intermission is a theatrical experience, keeping the actors on stage intensifying the sense of confinement.

Lift delivers gasps and loads of that smart and unique humor which can only be defined as Mosley-esque. Its clever title not only symbolizes the infamous compartment responsible for Tina and Theodore's entrapment but also the slowly unraveling and unspoken needs between them.

The play offers and entertaining evening with makes for a worthy trip to New Brunswick's arts district

Lift will running at Crossroads Theatre Company, 7 Livingston Ave until April 25th. For tickets go to http://www.crossroadstheatrecompany.org or call 732. 545.8100

Photo credit: William M Brown 2014