Flyin' West at Asheville Community Theatre
One can scarcely depict the 1800s American West without including weapons, guns, greed, and grief. You can’t have guns without triggers, and you won’t have triggers without loss and pain.
The fortunate and brilliant part of Asheville Community Theatre’s production of Flyin’ West is the manner in which a specific brand of “dark humor” (for lack of a better term) is thoroughly integrated throughout Pearl Cleage’s script. More specifically, it showcases the struggle, bravery, and perseverance of the newly freed, pioneering African-American female — the struggle to be seen and counted.
Designed by Jillian Sommers, the set is beautifully erected and decorated with western homestead-style wooden framing, stairs, and even a lofted guest bedroom. The separate space emphasizes a figurative and literal delineation from the rest of the home. The set proves to be highly transitional as it is backdropped in such a way that clearly accentuates and emulates sunsets, nightfall, sunrise, and new beginnings. The music accompanying such segues is by ’90s acapella gospel/soul group Sweet Honey in the Rock, which not only aids in time travel, but also serves as a plank dramatizing and foreshadowing imminent change. It’s one of many inspired choices by director Candace Taylor.
The story commences in a simple and casually mundane manner, using lighthearted sarcasm to highlight the everyday human quality peppered into the characters and their stories. What the audience member is faced with in the beginning of the play tends to juxtapose sharply against the harsher realities plaguing African-Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican immigrants in America. In this fashion, the story is time-stamped with an invisible, 1800s post-Civil War seal. No punches are pulled by the cohesive ensemble when it comes to historical and colloquial expressions used pejoratively to drive the gravity of such a unique timepiece.
Colorism is addressed throughout this production in a way that translates at times in an extremely caustic style. A bit farther into the story, Minnie Dove Charles (a memorable Molly Cantrell) returns from abroad in London, married and freshly fancy, reuniting with her sisters in the small, Black, Kansas homestead town of Nicodemus. The seemingly ideal marriage that entangles her proves to be much less than perfect. Her “mulatto” husband seems to pass for white in 99% of circumstances. He ultimately is ashamed of his blackness and proves to be a bit of a menace.
If one doesn’t have thick skin, they may find this tale to be a bit difficult to stomach in certain aspects. However, the proactive spiritual resistance provided by the music and comic relief of the script proves to be thoroughly redeeming and uplifting. The comradery of the women and their community proves to outlive their current dilemmas.
Flyin’ West runs through Sunday, Feb. 25, at Asheville Community Theatre. For details and tickets, visit ashevilletheatre.org.
(Photos by Eli Cunningham)
