The Old Settler is a production worthy of Luna Stage’s fine reputation. Written by John Henry Redwood and deftly directed by Susan Kerner, this domestic drama tells the story of what happens over the course of about a month in 1943 when a young man from rural South Carolina rents a room in a Harlem apartment inhabited by two middle-aged sisters, one separated from her husband, the other a spinster. The sibling rivalries and sexual tensions unleashed by this living arrangement make for a poignant and intense theatrical experience, one so human that it transcends time and race to resonate with us all. A lovely, authentic-looking, neat and tidy set designed by Robert Monaco provides the perfect backdrop for the chaotic, messy events that unfold on it. The claustrophobia of three adults living within the tight confines of a small apartment permeates Luna’s small black-box theater main stage. Evoking a fine sense of time and place, Steve Brown’s sound design incorporates such popular songs as “Take the A Train, “I Can’t Get Started” and “Lover, Where Can You Be” into the play; his use of a series of radio programs that meld one into the other is a clever way to signify the passage of time. And Debra Bergsma Otte’s costumes look as if they’ve stepped off the ages of 1943 issues of Life or Look magazines!
Redwood’s script is so well-crafted that the second act continues to maintain the dramatic tension of the first. Secrets hinted at are revealed to the audience’s surprise, and even stage business that appears to be random plays out in unexpected ways. Fortunately, the actors delivering Redwood’s dialogue are so comfortable and natural that we forget we are watching a play and instead feel like Peeping Toms sneaking a peak through the walls and windows of the apartment, much in the same way the sisters witness the goings-on in the hospital emergency room across the street.
As the sisters, Quilly and Elizabeth (Bess), Ami Brabson and Suzzanne Douglass quibble and quarrel convincingly over (mostly) trivial things through much of the first act. Brabson is adept at using her body and expressive face to register her dislike or disapproval on a myriad of topics, whether it’s the dress a corpse wore or the way the women of the church view the sisters’ having a male boarder in their home. Douglass’s face is more serene, her demeanor unruffled, for she is sure that what she is doing is right; besides, it helps pay the bills. “When folks start paying my rent, I’ll start worrying what people say,” she tells a skeptical Quilly. Tentative about her emotions, Douglass’s Bess becomes giggly and acts like a love-sick teenager when speaking to the young man on the telephone. As the boarder—named, ironically, Husband—Jamahl Marsh ably conveys the country bumpkin who tries to become a “hip cat,” only to look like “a runaway from a minstrel show,” as Quilly so succinctly puts it. A mama’s boy, Marsh’s Husband is the perfect mark for an ambitious young woman
named Charmaine/Lou Bessie to order around and to use as a money tree. She is played with great élan by Nikkole Salter, who sashays into Bess’s apartment and life like she owns both and throws insults at the older woman like grenades. We feel the sting of her words as they hit Bess full in the face. The year that Luna Stage was dark was a long one for theater lovers. This tour de force production is worthy of their reputation as an innovative, risk-taking organization (and yes, tour de force is appropriate here). The Old Settler is theater in the classic sense: none of the characters is evil, but all have character faults that lead them to make poor choices and bring about their downfall. Fortunately, unlike those Greek tragedies, no one in this play dies —unless you count dreams.
The Old Settler will be performed Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 PM and Sunday afternoons at 2 PM through November 14. Luna Stage is located at 555 Valley Road in West Orange. For information and tickets, call the box office at 973.395.5551.
