January 18, 2004
Section: FTR; ENTERTAINMENT
Edition: METRO FINAL
Page: 8E

LOVERS MUST DEAL WITH THE SKIN THEY'RE IN
MARTIN F. KOHN FREE PRESS THEATER CRITIC

'Yellowman'
FOUR STARS out of 4 stars
8:30 p.m. Thu.-Fri., 3 & 8:30 p.m.

Sat., 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sun.
Through March 21
Detroit Repertory Theatre
13103 Woodrow Wilson, Detroit
313-868-1347
$17
2 hours, 5 minutes

Bigotry is pernicious, even more so when it comes from within. Hate hurts, self-hate hurts worse. Thus, in her "Romeo and Juliet"-like play "Yellowman," Dael Orlandersmith does Shakespeare one better.

Her story, presented in Tim Rhoze's beautiful and heart-wrenching staging at Detroit Repertory Theatre, is about two young black people facing the cruel phenomenon of internal racism: the mutual resentment between light-skinned black people and darker-skinned black people. Alma, the play's Juliet, has dark skin; Eugene, the play's title character, has lighter skin.

Left to their own devices this wouldn't be a problem. In an opening scene of infinite charm, "Yellowman" shows Alma and Eugene, at ages 7 and 9 respectively, meeting in the schoolyard. Cecilia Foreman and Bernard Owens Jr. -- the entire cast -- play Alma and Eugene and a host of other characters. There is a third childhood friend, a dark-skinned boy named Alton, and the kids play at Batman and delight in singing the Monkees' theme song, the one about how they get the funniest looks from everyone they meet. Leave it to Orlandersmith to find profundity in this fluffiest of songs.

As Alma and Eugene grow up, funny looks are only the beginning. In Orlandersmith's rural South Carolina of the late 20th Century, as in Shakespeare's Verona of the 16th, parents always mess things up. More precisely, parents, grandparents, neighbors and so-called friends combine to make life hell for Alma and Eugene, individually and as a couple. Orlandersmith's play isn't so much about skin as who gets under it, and how.

Rhoze, who launched his acting career at the Rep some 25 years ago and has gone on to Chicago theaters, movies and network TV, is making his professional directing debut; everything about his staging, though, bespeaks experience as well as understanding. He has guided Foreman to a performance as Alma and her very different mother that will be talked about for years, and has elicited excellent work from Owens.

One can't imagine Orlandersmith's powerful and poetic play, a 2002 Pulitzer finalist, receiving a better production anywhere.

Contact MARTIN F. KOHN at 313-222-6517 or kohn@freepress.com.

Cecilia Foreman (Alma) and Bernard Owens Jr. (Eugene) perform all the roles in the play.