Date: Fri 23-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHIRLE

Quick Words:

Thunder-Yale-Rep-theatre

Full Text:

(rev "Thunder Knocking on the Door" @Yale Rep, 5/23/97)

Theatre Review-

Yale Rep's Closer Much Like A Fun Soap Opera

(with cut)

By June April

NEW HAVEN - The guitar wizardry of Steve Bargonetti was one of the main

reasons people would want to hear, and see, Yale Repertory Theatre's final

play of the season. His mastery and love of his instrument reaffirmed why he

was a featured guitarist at the 1997 Grammy Awards.

The actors did a fine job, as did the director, Reggie Montgomery. The play

itself, Thunder Knocking on the Door , was interesting, the way a soap opera

is interesting. It kept the audience involved, yet suspecting what the outcome

would be.

What was truly excellent, in addition to the musicians, was Charles

McClennahan's set. It was one of the strongest visual statements to actually

reflect the meaning of the play.

Envision two basically rectangular forms on either side of the stage on which

there is a frieze of figures, looking rather like Edvard Munch's "The Scream,"

except their hands were by the sides of their thin-curving spirit-like bodies.

Their mouths roundly agape, one felt drawn into a Purgatory of unfulfilled

dreams and relentless fears.

Center stage was a living room. At stage left a staircase led to an upper

level depicting the area where the bedrooms were, and the central portion was

"another place." When the second act arrived at the "crossroads" where love

and legend hang in the balance, the sets did a double rotation, to audience

applause. From a technical and aesthetic standpoint, it was one of the best

sets Yale Rep has ever had.

Earning his masters of fine arts from Yale, Charles McClellahan has designed

sets for Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Broadway and regional theatres. He

created a computer-aided design package for the theatre using AutoCAD,

DesignCAD and 3D Studio.

Briefly, Keith Glover's play is about the family of Jaguar Dupree, a

brilliantly talented and self-taught blues guitarist. The "Legacy" is that he

"outplayed" a musical spirit. But he had to make his living working in a mine,

so he died as a fairly young man leaving his wife, Good Sister Dupree, a

daughter, Glory, and a son, Jaguar Junior.

Before dying, Jaguar, Sr fashions by hand two guitars, each a gift for his

children. The play opens when the errant son return home, sans his guitar. A

mysterious stranger, one Marvell Thunder, has rented a room from Good Sister

Dupree, and he has Junior's guitar. Add a brother-in-law lustily in love with

Good Sister Dupree, and you have a production dealing with longing, grief,

love, despair and hope.

The music is not the kind you go out humming, but it is well written.

As the daughter, Kim Brockington is believable, giving the audience a taste of

fine blues singing. Winning the Black Entertainment Television Jazz Discover

Contest for 1997, Sheyvonne Wright is a dynamic and talented singer and

actress.

Eloquent in movement, Ron Cephas Jones drifted in and out of rooms as the

enigmatic Marvell Thunder. His laugh was devilish and his manner, mesmerizing.

Playwright/actor Cedric Turner judiciously played the love-torn brother of the

deceased Jaguar, Sr. He was a little excessive in the drunk scene, but

sensitively played a devoted lover.

Jerry Dixon's credentials indicate a bright future. He will be appearing in

the film Peace Maker with Nicole Kidman and George Clooney. As the younger

Jaguar, he sometimes sulked more than one would hope for, but overall pulled

off a most acceptable portrayal of this immature young man.