The world premiere by Thomas W. Jones II opened at MetroStage a few weeks ago. It’s his latest work and turns Anton Chekhov’s 1901 play about “Three Sisters” gathered for the funeral of their brother in Tzarist Russia into a warmly affectionate portrait of “Three Sistahs.” Here the setting is in Washington at the peak of the civil rights/anti-war turmoil of 1969. Jones and composer William Hubbard create a musical with songs sounding very much at home in the time and place, the middle-class black neighborhoods where passions were heightened by issues of both national and personal importance.
Three talented actress/singers portray the sisters, who seem only to gather at times of family grief. The play is set on the evening after the third funeral in as many years. Having lost first their mother and then their father, they have now lost their only brother to the carnage in Southeast Asia. They span the generation gap that was then becoming such a topic of conversation.
Bernardine Mitchell, with her rich, deep voice so well suited to the blues sound of the day, plays the oldest sister, who has built a career of which she is very proud at a local college but who is still single and unsatisfied. Her imposing performance reveals her sense of dignity, pride in her accomplishments and belief that personal worth is the key to staying out of the cycle of misfortune that afflicted so many of her peers. She also lets her hair down (literally) to enjoy the time with her sisters and share in their hopes and dreams as well as their fears and frustrations.
CRYSTAL FOX BRINGS a sharp edge to the character of the middle sister, who has married and moved to Cincinnati, where her suburban, middle-class life seems attractive on the surface but is less than totally satisfying to her. This sets up one of the better songs of the evening, her clarion call that “Sometimes You Just Need a Change,” which she sings with great heart as well as clear voice.
Desiré DuBose is the only member of the cast who has played on this stage before, having appeared in Jones’ musical revue “Harlem Rose” last season. Here she is the youngest of the sisters, just getting to the end of school and ready to set out on her own. She is caught up in the passions of the student movements of the day and challenges many of the assumptions of her older siblings about what to expect of the world.
But the show is more about what these three sisters share than what sets them apart. The centerpiece of the score is the lovely number “Temple of My Dream,” which each sister sings separately in a different location in the set of the family home, but which becomes a trio of unity, yearning and hope. Each holds a candle as she sings, and through set designer Milagros Ponce de Léon’s use of thin cloth to create walls that the audience can see through, they line up as a unit while each is in a separate room alone with her thoughts.
Jones not only wrote the play (with co-credit for the story given to Janet Pryce) and the lyrics for the songs, he directed the production. His staging is almost leisurely as he allows individual character-revealing moments to pass without undue emphasis. It is the cumulative effect of these moments and not any one flash of revelation that is the point of the play. The pace accelerates as the sisters finally allow themselves to unleash their grief through sharing stories of their lives together. After changing into pajamas and opening a few bottles of wine, laughter becomes just as much a release as do tears.
While this gentle approach works well to build the emotions of the evening, it deprives the members of the audience of many opportunities to signal their approval with applause after each song. Many big Broadway musicals stage their songs with what is called “a button” at the end, creating a pause and signaling the audience to cheer. For this more intimate musical, Jones has most songs end on a tender note or with dialogue picking up before the last note has died. The audience usually doesn’t want to interrupt. The fact that there were only three end-of-song ovations in the 26-song show was a result of that approach. The standing ovation at the final curtain was proof of the audience’s appreciation and the success of Jones’ approach.
“Three Sistahs” plays Wednesdays through Sundays through Oct. 13 at MetroStage, 1201 N. Royal St. Tickets are $30 -$35. For reservations, call 703-548-9044.