Trinity Rep’s Blues for an Alabama Sky: Polished Performances

PROVIDENCE, RI —Trinity Repertory Company’s season closer, “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” is an exceptionally well-mounted production. The performances are all highly polished, the set design and period costumes are gorgeous, and the dialogue is often witty and perceptive. 

The story follows a group of friends in Harlem in the 1930s. The Great Depression has taken a toll on everyone, including Angel (Cloteal L. Horne), a blues singer who has lost her job, her lover, and her apartment.

Fortunately, Angel has a companion in Guy (Taavon Gamble), an openly gay man and a fashion designer. Guy lets Angel stay in his apartment while she looks for a new singing job. 

Guy’s neighbor Delia (Meagan Dilworth), a vibrant and good-natured young woman, wants to start a family planning clinic with the assistance of  Sam (Dereks Thomas), a friendly doctor with little interest in a romance.

Life becomes complicated for Angel when Leland (Quinn West), a debonair newcomer from the South, comes to town. Angel becomes infatuated with him and sees Leland as her ticket out of a life of misery. 

Leland is a devoutly religious man with a tragedy in his past: his wife died during childbirth, along with his baby son.

Director Jackie Davis, who co-starred in last year’s “Fences,” immerses the characters in a world of seduction, danger, and ultimately, heartbreak. 

Horne is mesmerizing as Angel, a disillusioned dreamer so burned by life that she doesn’t care about anyone else’s desires. Horne looks great, sings great, and effectively conveys Angel’s insecurity, desperation and fear of being left to grow old alone.

Gamble (“The Inheritance”) displays a bottomless pit of charm and humor. Guy is the best friend we all wish we could have. He’s warm, loyal, and won’t let anyone beat him down. His relationship with Angel has an underlying sexual tension just beneath the surface. She’s attracted to him but knows he could never reciprocate her feelings. 

Dilworth, a newcomer to Trinity Rep., is tremendously sympathetic and appealing as Delia. Her interactions with Thomas are sweet and sexy.  

African-American Playwright Pearl Cleage has included many provocative subjects in her writing: birth control, homophobia, misogyny, racism, and the lack of job opportunities for women, particularly black women.

Unfortunately, the first act, which lasts far too long at 90 minutes, is too ponderous. All the characters are introduced and given the chance to share their dreams but there’s a notable lack of plot progression. Things pick up in the play’s second act. Angel becomes pregnant with Leland’s child. He asks her to marry him. She says yes to his proposal. There’s just one small problem: Angel does not love Leland and does not want a child.

Angel later tells Leland she suffered a miscarriage. When he comforts her by saying they can always have more children, Angel admits she had an abortion. This enrages Leland, who commits a shocking act of violence. 

The closing moments of “Blues for an Alabama Sky” do not resolve the story in a satisfying way. Angel’s behavior is contemptible, particularly the cavalier attitude she takes when sharing the truth with Leland. Her lack of any type of remorse for her actions is simply vile, especially considering the damage she has caused. 

Delia has more reason to be angry than anyone else yet the script cheats her – and the audience – out of a confrontation with Angel. Where’s the expression of her grief, her sense of betrayal? We never see it.

And that’s a shame, because there’s so much that’s right about this play. The set-up is there for a powerful drama, but the writing fails the characters in the end.

Blues for an Alabama Sky runs through June 29. Trinity Repertory Company. 201 Washington St., Providence, RI. Run time is 3 hours with one intermission. For tickets, call 401-351-4242 or visit www.trinityrep.com.

Author: Joe Siegel

Joe Siegel is a regular contributing writer for WarwickPost.com. His reporting has appeared in The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro and EDGE.