Juked at Different Strokes
Juked, Mildred Inez Lewis’ new play receiving its world premiere at Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective, is a remarkable reimagining of Sophocles’ Electra. But don’t let that reference to Greek tragedy scare you off.
Similar to what Lin-Manuel Miranda did for the Founding Fathers’ story in Hamilton, Lewis gives Sophocles’ ancient poetry a jolt of soul and African American vernacular. And she puts Black life in 1940s Asheville on stage with a rawness probably never seen here before.
What Lewis takes from Electra is its elemental family drama. At the show’s start, a griot-chorus character called Mary Lou (Sharvis Smith) explains the plot’s set-up. After the Civil War, the newly freed Pelop Memnon bought land secretly in “Asheville, North — by God — Carolina,” built a moonshine still, and made strategic payoffs to the white establishment. Mary Lou calls him “a colored king in sharecroppers’ rags.” In the 1930s, Pelop’s son Thaddeus expanded the operation with a string of drink houses that became refuges for Black folks while making the Memnons rich.
Smith’s Mary Lou immediately draws us in with her vivacious stage presence. And when she launches into a gospel-like anthem with a showstopping voice, we know we can have, as she says, “joy on the way to a tragedy.”
The tragedy belongs to Lectra, Thaddeus Memnon’s eldest daughter, played by Kirby Gibson. It begins when her mother Nestra (Donna Marie McMillan) and her mother’s lover Gus (Chesney Goodson) murder Thaddeus.
Lectra vows to punish her mother and get justice for her father. Sending her younger brother O (Zay Hickling Beckman) away for safety, she and her sister Themis (Sha’Air Hawkins) become captives in the house where they endure abuse from Gus and their mother, who grow corrupt and greedy.
The tragedy unfolds inexorably over the next 10 years as the sisters wait to avenge Thaddeus’ murder until O returns. When he does, there is a shocking act of violence.
Co-directors Stephanie Hickling Beckman and Rodney Smith have brought together a powerhouse cast. Four accomplished actors anchor the show, beginning with Sharvis Smith’s chorus, who consoles and confronts all the characters and guides all the action.
Gibson, an actor of intelligence and precision, gives Lectra great nuance. Equally capable of being fierce and tender, she’s sometimes a resentful child and other times an adult overflowing with righteous indignation.
As her opponent, McMillan captures Nestra’s extravagant ego and wounded pride. She prowls and sashays; she lashes out and cajoles. And towards the end, when she discloses the long-ago hurt that made her a vindictive woman, she wins our sympathy. It’s a bravura performance.
Goodson’s Gus walks the line between comic villain and real villain. He’s louche and insinuating and, with his gold tooth glinting, he’s charming in his swagger. But he’s definitely dangerous when he reveals his plan to sell drugs as well as liquor at the drink houses.
Surrounding is core quartet is an engaging group of supporting players. Hawkins’ Themis teeters on an emotional and moral seesaw between her mother and her sister; Zay Hickling Beckman’s O grows from a fearful teen to a more assured fledgling professional athlete; and C.J. Green as O’s protector and mentor Banion projects a winning warmth.
In addition to the riveting performances, other production elements add to Juked’s power. While the playwright only makes suggestions for music, director Hickling Beckman has devised a complete score of blues, blues fusion, and hip-hop. She also wrote the lyrics for Mary Lou’s opening anthem and uses the same song for the show’s celebratory close. The multi-talented Sharvis Smith composed the music.
Ida Bostian’s costumes in muted earth colors make a strong, unifying visual statement. When she gives us a surprise — no spoiler here — the audience gasps. It’s an occasion when costumes become characters themselves.
For the closing scene, Lewis departs significantly from her source material. Sophocles ended his Electra abruptly with a family’s blood justice of revenge, but Lewis takes her cue from Aeschylus, whose Oresteia ends by establishing a court of justice for civic healing. The playwright and Different Strokes bring us full circle with a finale that’s true to the spirit of the Greek original and gives us the joy after tragedy as promised from the beginning.
Juked runs through Nov. 23. Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective is housed in the Tina McGuire Theatre within Asheville’s Wortham Center for the Performing Arts. Visit differentstrokespac.org for tickets and details.
(Photo by Shelby Taylor Design)
