The River Niger

More |

The River Niger

Robey Theatre Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center

Reviewed by Melinda Schupmann

December 09, 2009

Originally written and performed in the 1970s, Joseph A. Walker's gripping play about race relations still resonates, even though the story has become familiar and the inevitable tragedy foreseen. Passionate and poetically written, its beauty is in characterization and its strength in the actors' nuanced performances.

Johnny Williams (Ben Guillory) is a complex intellectual whose aspirations to become a lawyer were abandoned as he took several low-paying jobs to support his wife's extended family. His dreams are wrapped up in his son, Jeff (Dane Diamond), a former gang leader and now Air Force lieutenant who is returning home. At the play's opening, Johnny is arguing with his best friend, Dr. Dudley Stanton (Alex Morris), about life and death. His idealism translates into seeing himself as a warrior in a raging battle against society.

His warm and loving wife, Mattie (Margaret Avery), is facing her own battle as she discovers she has terminal cancer, but she accepts her fate in a manner unlike her volatile husband's. When he learns the news and hears, moreover, that Jeff has failed flight school, he goes on a bender that precedes a final sacrificial act.

Guillory is riveting as he conveys love and anger in equal measure. Avery's beautifully restrained performance is a solid underpinning for the turmoil in the Williams' household. Also giving fine performances are Diarra Kilpatrick as Jeff's girlfriend, Cydney Davis as the always-tipsy grandmother, and Diamond as the conflicted son who is finding his own path. As members of Jeff's former gang, Tarnue Massaquoi, Sola Bamis, Walter Fauntleroy, Marquis Horace, and Anthony B. Phillips bring vulnerability and menace to their interpretations.

Director Dwain A. Perry handles the melodramatic story well by focusing on family and loyalty, some represented by small acts and others by Walker's epic lyricism. By play's end, the memory of racial disharmony of past times and the continuing struggle today are brought into vivid focus.

Presented by Robey Theatre Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., L.A. Nov. 13–Dec. 20. Fri.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (213) 489-0994, ext. 107. www.thelatc.org.