There is perhaps nothing more exciting for a well-seasoned theatre lover than the opportunity to see brand new work. Particularly when that new work is as beautifully written and excellently produced as “Bambiland”, the world premiere currently at Face Off Theatre Company.
Written by Kendra Ann Flournoy and magnificently directed by Marissa Harrington, both founding members of FOTC, “Bambiland” focuses on rising star New York investigative journalist Nic who’s been assigned the story her thought leader magazine editor insists will shortlist her for the Pulitzer and be her segue to The New York Times. These promises drive her ambition, but reporting this story requires that she return to her hometown of Detroit after 10 long years of avoidance and she hesitates.
Her assignment is a very real story that made national news. After the financial crisis of 2008, Detroit homeowners, a disproportionate number of them Black, were overtaxed to the tune of $600 million dollars when the city failed to reassess dwindling home values. One-third of homeowners couldn’t keep up with the inflated bills and sweeping foreclosures destroyed lives, families, and communities as well as dramatically changed the landscape of the city.
It alone is a gripping tale, one that is still largely unresolved—with little to no reparations for those who lost everything—and it deserves to be told in as many ways possible, including on stage. But the brilliance of “Bambiland” is in its artistry and how the tale within a tale elucidates gripping personal dramas, including Nic’s.
As she seeks the human face of the story she’s reporting in order to make it award-winning, she reveals to herself and to the audience her own story: largely how disconnecting from her roots ultimately distanced her from her true self.
Since there is no resolution to the journalistic story she’s pursuing, the real narrative arc here is Nic’s—and much of the way she evolves is through pure poetry. Metaphors include running, water, and nature, and what has happened to Detroit is also happening within Nic. Gentle double entendres abound. “Folks were drowning” in debt and Nic is drowning in her professional ambition and resistance connecting to the larger body of water that is her people.
The “fractured infrastructure” of the city of Detroit is also in Nic; homeowners are overtaxed both literally and figuratively; and Nic runs both literally and figuratively—in her recurring dreams (beautifully shot through with African dance, water imagery, and visitations from ancestors), in her life as she’s taking phone calls from her editor, and from the truth of who she is.
The performances are heartfelt and the ensemble tight. Cierra Hedgespeth’s Nic is stiff and hard-nosed, but she softens physically and vocally as her character changes. She expresses emotion beautifully through her eyes and she connects deeply with the terrific Milan Levy as her sister Charly Russell and the wonderfully emotive Delanti Hall as Everett Towns, a source and high school acquaintance with whom she reconnects for her story. These scenes are among the most potent in the play.
The action is both internal and external, with many locales efficiently represented with carefully chosen set pieces with quick, seamless transitions as well as clever lighting by Samantha Snow. Music and sound play a huge role in shaping the storytelling and heightening mood and drama.
There is a lot to establish early in the piece and there are moments of over-explaining wherein Nic delivers information to the audience rather than speaking naturally, particularly in scenes with her editor (played by Guy Hauke). But the tremendous vision and terrific ambitions of this remarkable work largely come to fruition elegantly, and any polemical overwriting is balanced by the subtleties of what’s communicated beyond words in otherwise gorgeously crafted scenes and the beautifully staged dream sequences.
“Bambiland” is a “full circle moment” for the company, said Director Marissa Harrington in her curtain speech opening night, and the heart and generous soul of Face Off Theatre Company shines through in this moving production: a powerful world premiere and magnificent collaboration the likes of which theatre lovers live for.
Bambiland
Face Off Theatre Company
Aug. 16-25
https://www.faceofftheatre.com/bambiland.html
