“Hoodoo Love”
When: Through July 1
Where: 10th Avenue Theatre, 930 10th Ave. (Downtown)
Thurs – Sat 8 p.m.
Sun 2 p.m.
Info: 619-342-7395
Web: Moolelo.net

Award-winning play highlighted by playwright’s flashes of poetry

Por Charlene Baldridge | Crítico de Teatro SDUN

Mo‘olelo Performing Arts Company continues its exploration of “other” populations with Katori Hall’s award-winning play “Hoodoo Love.” The Blues-infused work plays through July 1 at the 10th Avenue Theatre, Downtown.

The first work by an African-American woman to receive Britain’s Olivier Award, “Hoodoo Love” is set in Memphis, Tenn. during the Great Depression, a time when many African-Americans, freed from slavery, migrated to the north – indeed to the far corners of the nation – seeking employment and a better life.

Toulou (played by Jasmine Hughes), a remarkably independent young woman with a talent for song writing, has escaped her rural family and lives alone in a cluster of shacks on a cul-de-sac near Beale Street, the putative birthplace of the Blues. Her next-door neighbor is an old conjure woman named Candylady (Monique Gaffney), who has had five husbands. Candylady loved them all and carries relics of each in her hoodoo bag. Toulou wants the Blues “ramblin’ man” named Ace of Spades (Stu James) to settle down with her, and the solicitous Candylady mixes up a potion to do just that. Meanwhile, along comes Toulou’s no-count brother, Jib (Kirkaldy Myers), who declares he’s come to where they are to set up a church.

The male characters are not exactly likable. If it were otherwise, there would be no blues to sing. Jib is an unctuous arch villain, spouting Biblical verse, orating and posing. Ace of Spades, though he displays tenderness and has suffered loss (if his story is to be believed), reputedly has a woman in every town on his itinerant-musician route.

“Do you know my sister?” asks Jib of Ace of Spades in their first meeting. Obviously, he means in the Biblical sense, which leads to Jib moving in with his sister. The men’s relationship, fraught with jealousy and fueled with poker and bourbon, goes downhill from there. Such relationship cannot lead to a happy ending.

This storytelling feels more authentic and less slick than most such tales told on the stage, but like most, it feels exceptionally long, clocking in at nearly 2 hours 30 minutes, including intermission. Between the San Diego Repertory, the Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse, we’ve seen numerous treatments.

There is nothing of dramaturgical surprise in “Hoodoo Love.” The enjoyment of the piece, therefore, lies in its authentic feel, in the playwright’s flashes of poetry, in the spontaneity of the music and in the performances.

James is adept at guitar and possesses an exceptional baritone as well as an understated sensuality. Gaffney surprises with her finely limned character acting. Hughes is lovely to watch and listen to, though she only indicates playing guitar. Myers’s posturing grows tiresome, partly due to the writing and partly to Nataki Garrett’s stage direction. Garrett is the associate dean of the CalArts School of Theatre.

David F. Weiner’s scenic design is rather wondrous, as are costume designer Jeannie Galioto’s preacher-man suits and country garb. Travis Stephen Gooden provides music direction, Stephen Terry is lighting designer and E.M. Gimenez is the sound designer. Dwight Bacquie is dialect coach.