SHE: A Shining Light in Hard Times

In “SHE,” a 13-year-old Black girl from the deep South has awfully grand dreams for the hardscrabble factory town where she and her mom struggle to survive. She’ll be a writer, she imagines, a poet even – so everyone in the world can hear what she has to say! Then, miracles of miracles, out of the blue she’s accepted at an exclusive arts academy, the best the South has to offer – and her dreams are about to take flight!

If only life were so simple.

Enjoying its world premiere at the Antaeus Theatre after several years of Covid-bred delays, playwright Marlow Wyatt’s “SHE” powerfully explores the travails many working class families – particularly Black ones – face in an America that has left so many people like them behind. The marvelous interplay of characters, the stirring story of hope and perseverance, the joyous theatricality of the performance had the audience leaping to its feet and wiping away tears as the curtain came down after the matinee we attended.

Don’t miss this one. It’s truly magical.

Movingly played by Camille Ariana Spirlin, SHE Sojourner Freeman has all the talent in the world. Everybody says so. Even so young, she’s already writing her own poetry as she studies the works of Langston Hughes and dreams of being her generation’s Maya Angelou.

Surely, in a different body, in a different town, a young woman with SHE’s soaring gifts could realize her dreams in a waltz. But for SHE, there are obstacles aplenty.

For one, her hard-working mom, Bernice – spot-on played by Karen Malina White – couldn’t dream of paying for SHE’s boarding school fees in the best of times, and these aren’t the best of times. Worse, as much as she may love her daughter, Bernice struggles to see clarity through the shadow of her own demons.

Lonnie (Jon Chaffin) - handsome, manly, with a stylish wardrobe and a Cadillac Seville sparkling outside - is the most recent demon to cast said shadow. Ever the fast talker, Lonnie sweeps Bernice off her feet that are all too accustomed to being swept off, and SHE gets forgotten in that shuffle.

Supported by her clearly smitten classmate, 14-year-old Davie Mansaw (Lorenz Arnell), and busybody neighbor, Miss Jane (Veronica Thompson), SHE resigns herself to living out her life in the same backwater town her mother never managed to escape.

But, as you’ll see – and you should see – hope springs eternal.

As directed by Andi Chapman, SHE is just a marvelous two-plus-hour antidote to a world that seems to be falling apart all around us. Many accolades also go to the creative team:

Together their clever ministrations are almost like another character in this uplifting play.

SHE runs through November 20, with performances on Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Monday, October 23 the show will be dark, and there are additional performances on Thursday Nov. 9 and 16 at 8 p.m., and Saturday Nov. 11 and 18 at 2 p.m.

The Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center is located at 110 East Broadway, Glendale 91205. For reservations and information, call 818.506.1983 or go to antaeus.org.