The Acton Theatre Review: CSC’s Wine in the Wilderness

By Acton

As we settle into our seats, a man sits drawing on the floor of his apartment, surrounded by books, canvases, and colorful textiles. Outside the apartment (a beautifully realistic set by Arnulfo Maldonado), we can hear sounds of police and rioters, but inside, Bill (Grantham Coleman) is almost able to shut it all out through sheer concentration on his work. Almost, until the crowds get too close for comfort and a bullet zings past his window. Set during the Harlem race riots of 1964, Wine in the Wilderness (by Alice Childress, directed by LaChanze) is a story of insiders and outsiders, and a cruel assumption that causes shame and finally change.

Bill is a politically woke (in the ‘60s sense of the term) painter who sees his art as a tool to uplift his community. His work is interrupted by a frantic knock, and Oldtimer (Milton Craig Nealy) busts through the door, a neighborhood fixture who’s looking for a good place to hide the handful of treasures he’s managed to loot, including a new suit. They chat, and we learn more about Bill’s latest painting, a triptych that is 2/3rds complete.

The work, he says, will represent his idea of the three faces of Black womanhood. The first shows an adorable little girl in a white frilly dress. The centerpiece is a majestic, powerful figure in a tiger skin, her afro framed by the sun. The third canvas is blank, but as Bill describes it, will be the portrait of a Black woman beaten down by society until she’s an irredeemable wreck—in short, “a messed up chick.” He’s been blocked from finishing the piece until now by his failure to find a life model deplorable enough to fit his vision. But then he gets a call from his politically hip, fashionable friends Sonny-man (Brooks Brantly) and Cynthia (a perfectly composed Lakisha May). Taking shelter from the riot in a local bar, they’ve met the perfect mess to model for Bill, a woman named Tommy (Olivia Washington).

Tommy arrives like a cheerfully tacky tornado, hopelessly out of date in her politics and her look, from her cheap hairpiece to her bobby soxer pleated skirt. As the others grin conspiratorially to each other from behind their cocktail glasses, Tommy seems to exhibit all the boorish behavior and ignorance that Bill’s been looking for. But this isn’t My Fair Lady, and Bill’s not about to reform a woman he sees as pathetic.

Over the course of a long night, however, Tommy surprises him (not least by revealing her full name, Tomorrow). She might not be as politically ignorant as she seems, and quite a bit more astute about people than he is. Unlike Bill, who sees people for what he can extract from them and flatten onto a canvas, writer Alice Childress (Trouble In Mind) paints her characters in subtle tones. When we first meet Tommy, she’s an amusing jolt of energy but not the over-the-top grotesque that Bill seems to have invented. Milton Craig Nealy (My Destiny Productions’ Born For This) gives Oldtimer a sense of personal history behind his neighborhood roustabout persona. And although Bill and his friends’ scheme is cruel, they aren’t total snobs, either.

As I was watching Wine in the Wilderness, it felt like a classic with enough richness for a variety of interpretations. The entire cast is wonderful, and Olivia Washington (West End’s Slave Play) is spellbinding as the two faces of Tommy, who Bill gradually comprehends as one complex human being. The handsome and entertaining production from director LaChanze is the first I’ve seen by Alice Childress, and I’m looking forward to experiencing more from this subtle and humane writer.