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| L - R Nic Few and Ben Guillory - Photos by Josh Estey |
By Joe Straw
Bernard let me down, a man once filled with idealism, caught the wave of the civil right movement, and rode that incredible emotional groundswell to find another view, another perspective. A contradictory way of life against all avenues of someone’s being. All for the sake of who, or what?
The Robey Theatre Company in association with The Los Angeles Theatre Center presents The Talented Tenth written by Richard Wesley, produced, and directed by Ben Guillory, through December 10th, 2023.
Bernard (Nic Few) is just out of Howard University. He stands patiently as his prospective employer Griggs (Ben Guillory) grills him like an army sergeant would and sets him straight about what it means to be employed by his firm, what he needs to do, and how he needs to struggle to provide for himself, his family, and the black community that he needs to elevate.
Bernard, taught well under the banner of a historically black college, has another way of thinking. He believes attitudes have changed for the black man at this time and racial tension and discrimination are not what they used to be in the civil rights era. He has learned a lot, wants to relax now, but reluctantly accepts the information that Griggs has presented to him.
Bernard gets the job and after many years has secured himself in the firm of black radio stations, married a beautiful light skin woman of means Pam (Tiffany Coy), had four children, and surrounded himself with college friends Rowena (Monte Escalante) her husband Marvin (Julio Hanson) and their acquaintance Ron (Stirling Bradley), and as an extra bonus a mistress Tanya (Jessica Obilom) on the side.
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| Julio Hanson and Monte Escalante |
Today Bernard and friends are in in Jamaica sans the mistress. All are wanting to end their vacation sitting and sunning, but Bernard’s mind is on the pursuit of an undefined act. He wants to take the car to another part of the island., a tranquil conscience pursuing loftier goals away from the complacency of wearisome repetition. It is a move that gets him into trouble, but he moves forward not looking back at the unpleasant reflection of his thoughts.
Richard Wesley’s The Talented Tenth was first produced in 1989 and is just as relevant today. Bernard moves in ways that underlies a deep motivation as he discards his youthful ideals for business pragmatism - and one that establishes himself as a character with unparalleled perfidy. Carefully, he moves with the precision of a surgeon, discarding his don’t wants, while enveloping his wants. His end game has many obstacles; friends, wife, mistress, and Wesley manages to weave the play to its dramatic conclusion. Each person viewing the play will come away with different ideas as they walk away from the theatre and that’s what makes the play so intriguing, so absorbing, and so right for the times.
Ben Guillory, the director, and producer, places the actors of The Robey Theatre Company into the laps of audience a few feet away. Moments are rarely missed as the action moves in a smooth progression, taking a pause for the character to absorb the moment. Something you rarely see, actors never leaving character during the scene changes. The Talented Tenth is a wonderful show filled with remarkable talent that, on this night, elicited various dramatic responses from the theatre patrons. Ben Guillory as the character Griggs is a complex character, a business owner reaping the benefits from his hard-working employees of black radio stations only to discard his thought of uplifting the black community and selling his business to a white conglomerate – getting out while the getting is good. Guillory excels in the role.
Nic Few is outstanding as Bernard. He plays Bernard as a man who moves to his own beat to get what he wants. The road he takes may seem ill advised but he moves in ways that will offer him the best possible business outcome. He appears to discard the message of the talented tenth in favor of the result and that’s what makes this performance remarkable.
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| Jessica Obilom and Tiffany Coty |
Tiffany Coty is excellent as Pam, Bernard’s wife. She thinks she has got everything going for her only slightly aware that she is having small problems with her husband. Her life is upper-middle class, and she has lived a life of privilege. She could also pass because of the color of her skin and was considered an excellent catch in college. Pam is aware of that life but doesn’t give it a lot of thought being married with four kids. Coty's riveting performance culminates in a dramatic scene in the second act that is jaw dropping and well worth the price of admission.
Stirling Bradley brings forth an interesting character in Ron. He is the lone man out, unattached but always hanging around his group of friends, drinking, vacationing, going to university functions. There is a hint of a relationship with Pam, but that relationship may require definition and a stronger physical life when he is near her. Bradley may need to elevate his objective to get what he needs even if he doesn’t get it and we must see the reason he has decided to make the decision to turn his life in another direction. Still, some very interesting work.
Monte Escalante plays Rowena a woman who has not set aside her jealously even at this point in her life. Rowena seems happy in her nice upper middle-class life, but she wanted more. She is authentically black and wonders what her life would be like if things had turned out differently, gotten the man she wanted, and was able to move through life without being discriminated against. There is a hint that “her man” may have been stolen away from her and that plays to great effect. Escalante’s work is sublime.
Jessica Obilom is Tanya, the girlfriend (mistress). She is also a woman who gets everything she wants. She doesn’t mess around and is on the married man every chance she gets about leaving his wife and coming to stay with her. “Be careful what you wish for.”, is a phrase one thinks when thinking about this type of character. Tanya smiles when she finds out she is getting what she came for. But has she been duped? Surely, the Kente Cloth can’t be worth the trouble she is getting herself into. Obilom’s work is exceptional.
There is a moment in the cocktail scene when Julio Hanson as Marvin recognizes that he may not be as benign and compliant as his wife thinks he is. It is a moment in which he quailed inwardly and a moment that soared on this night. It is also the moment that defines that character down to his toenails. Hanson work is excellent.
Rogelio Douglas III last seen in Picnic at The Odyssey gives a grand performance as Bernard Jr. late in the second act of this show. It is amazing how, in that scene, history keeps repeating itself but probably will work itself out in another incarnation of his life. Douglas is excellent.
Ed Haynes, Set Designer, has created paintings that hang on the wall of each set, each location. Those painting are set lines, lines that are ridged, that leave little room to escape beyond the confines of the canvas, trapped in a world of greys and blacks that is only surrounded by colored neon lights that suggests scene changes. It suggests a certain kind of wealth of the character that inhabit that world and may define the limitations of the characters as well.
Naila A. Sanders, Costume Designer, and Natalie Shahinyan, Assistant Costume Designer, defines the 1993 time and the place and the work was outstanding.
Other members of this wonderful crew are as follows:
J C Cadena – Associate Producer
Crystal Nix – Production Stage Manager
Leilani Scott Young – Assistant Stage Manager
Josh Estey – Production Photographer
Jason Mimms – Graphic Designer
Philip Sokoloff – Publicist
Cydney Wayne Davis – Music Director/Composer/Vocalist
James Manning – Sound engineer/Composer
Ceasar Bijou – Set Builder
Rye Mandel – Prop Master
Melissa Kaye Bontempt – Backstage Assistant
Akosua Hobert – Friends of Robey Volunteer Coordinator
Princess Guillory – Event Planner
Kiara Mariwalla Costarelli – Producer Intern
Run! Run! Run!
Tickets: 213-489-7402
www.therobeytheatrecompany.org
The Robey Theatre Company
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA. 90013