Review: ALABASTER at OnStage Playhouse

It’s not unusual to talk to your pets, though usually, when they start to talk back, it’s a cause for concern.  Instead, “Alabaster,” playing at OnStage Playhouse, uses Weezy the goat, who does talk back to her owner, to add a sweet touch of magical realism to this play about love, loneliness, and how to move forward after surviving a trauma. Alabaster is playing through March 2nd.

The setting is Alabaster, Alabama. Alice (Ray-Anna Ranae) is a photographer who has arrived at the home of June (Vic Terry) to take pictures of her for Alice’s series exploring people with scars, both emotional and physical. June barely survived a tornado that partially destroyed her family farm and killed her parents and her younger sister. A few years later, June is a recluse on the family farm, painting to process her feelings and talking to her goat, Weezy (Jillian Jones), who talks back to her. 

Weezy is a free spirit-type goat who, when she speaks to June, tells it like it is whether June wants to hear the truth or not.  Weezy would prefer to wander the countryside and eat all the okra, but she returned to the farm after the storm for both June and to help care for her mama goat Bib (Amy Dell), who is declining in health. 

Alice is there for a few days to take photos for her series exploring people and their scars, a project she created to help herself cope with her trauma.  As the two women grow closer and share their experiences, they find that as much as they are different, they have many similarities.

What emerges is a play that explores how sometimes time and talent are not always enough to help you process and move on but that an outside perspective might be the final push you need to push past your fears. 

This show is darkly funny, directed by Terri Brown, but the energy in the beginning feels slightly unbalanced.  The play starts with some characters at a manic fever pitch, eventually settling down but making some of the relationship-building between June and Alice feel sudden and confusing.

Terry’s June is brittle and mercurial as she deals with Alice. However, this photography project slowly forces her to confront some truths she had been suppressing, and she slowly becomes more centered. Ranae, as the photographer Alice, starts more neutral and slowly sheds layer by layer to reveal her vulnerable center and how this project has helped her in her time of need. 

Jones, as Weezy, is pragmatic and very funny. She opens the show, drinking her Red Bull while directly addressing the audience. Weezy also has a sensitive side, which is especially prevalent as she deals with her sick mother, Bib, who Dell sweetly plays.

The scenic design by Duane McGregor creates a good farmhouse and exterior animal pen in the space, which is accented by the lighting design by Ginger Chody and the sound design by Jaden Guerrero. Christopher Thorton's costume design builds a lot of character, and I enjoyed Weezy's big belt buckle with a goat. The original art on the walls by Ali Beauchamp and Kristy McNamee is striking and plays a key part in the story.

“Alabaster” is a dramatic and darkly funny play about trauma and the hope of living the best life after coming through the other side of that trauma. Sometimes, help comes in unexpected forms, whether a stranger or even a talking goat.  

How To Get Tickets

“Alabaster” is playing at OnStage Playhouse through March 2nd.  For ticket and showtime information, go to www.onstageplayhouse.org

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