ACT PRESENTS THE FINAL PLAY IN THE BROTHER/SISTER TRILOGY

AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER PRESENTS….
MARCUS; OR THE SECRET OF SWEET
By
Tarrell Alvin McCraney
Directed by Mark Rucker


Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing.
Labels are not for people.
Martina Navratilova

MARCUS; OR THE SECRET OF SWEET is the third play in The Brother/Sister Plays Trilogy by McCraney. It is a play about the inner torment a black man suffers when he comes out in San Pere, Louisiana. For this reviewer, the mood of the play and the levity of the treatment of so profound a subject contradicted what the author was trying to tell us. This is not a topic that is funny or a transition to be taken lightly by any adolescent, black or white. Emily Hoffman explains, “Many coming-out stories of black gay men are characterized by similar, sometimes baffling dualities of acceptance and rejection, of knowing and refusal to know.”

McCraney talks about the way he was teased when he admitted that he was “sweet”. “When I was a kid, people did that all the time and I said, ‘But then, when I came out of the closet, why did everybody have such a fit? You’ve been saying I was gay since I was nine.’”

Marcus (Richard Prioleau) knows he is “sweet” and so does everyone in his community but he is not sure how to play out his life. His mother Oba (Margo Hall) asks him, ”Are you turning into the man you want to be or the man you need to be?” and indeed that is the theme of this production. Do we have the power to create the “who we are” that we think we want to be or are we destined to be what we are no matter what our head tells us will be the better (and safer) way of life? Marcus interacts with his girlfriends as friends and the scene of the three of them, Shaunta (Omoze Idehenre), Osha (Shinelle Azoroh) and Marcus bathed in golden light dancing in a sun shower shows us how lovely and truly innocent that friendship is for each of them.

Yet, although she senses that Marcus is gay, Osha loves him as a man and her disappointment when his sexual preferences are openly expressed feels like betrayal to her. Friendship is another kind of love and she comes to realize that this is the basis for their devotion to one another. When she tells him about her new lover Shua (Tobie L. Windham), Marcus realizes that he has been betrayed. He had his first sexual experience with Shua and the revelation that this man he thought loved only him was actually using him as a diversion is devastating. Windham brings Shua to life with artistic sensitivity. One can see his duplicity even before he utters a line. Windham is also Oshoosi Size and he is excellent in that role as well. One cannot praise his ability to switch characters with such authenticity enough.

The words in these plays are pure poetry. Marcus’s uncle Ogun Size (beautifully portrayed by Gregory Wallace) a character who has appeared in all three plays, tells the tormented boy to look to the sky to find all his answers, but ultimately those answers must be discovered in Marcus’ own heart and no one else’s. McCraney says, “I never felt average. So when people tried to put me in an average place, I couldn’t subscribe to it, because it didn’t feel right to me. “

Mark Ruder directed this production and he says, “The world, the writing, the dialogue and the characters of MARCUS are so compelling. The story of a boy coming out is very moving to me, and telling it in the frame and context of the world Tarell has created is something that I am proud of.”

Yet, despite excellent acting and a story that should be told, the production lacks the impact of The Brothers Size. Too many teen agers struggle with their sexual identity to have it portrayed as something casual and easy. There is nothing funny about Marcus’s struggle and nothing trivial about his desperate search for the why of the way he feels. His affair with Shua is a heart-break but that is not how is appears on the ACT stage. It is told as a victory for homosexuality and the audience cheered, while those of us who understand the agonies every human being feels when he knows he is different, wept.


The only queer people are those who don't love anybody.
Rita Mae Brown

IF YOU GO:
MARCUS continues until November 21, 2010
WHERE: ACT: 415 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
TICKETS:
Prices start at $10
415 749 2228 or www.act-sf-org