Review : Alice Childress’ “Trouble In Mind” and the conversation on race

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to see and review Alice Childress’ critically acclaimed play, A Trouble In Mind at the Two River Theater.

Set in the 1950s, A Trouble In Mind is a timeless piece that will spark a healthy conversation on race.

Trouble in Mind was mounted for Broadway in the mid-50s but never made it.

With many success off Broadway, this classic piece by Alice Childress has been resurrected giving theater goers an insightful play to divulge into.

Trouble In Mind Review

A play within a play,, Trouble In Mind takes place backstage as a group of actors prepare to bring forth a racy conversational play about the lynching of a black man in the South.

Wiletta, who by the end grew to be my favorite character, aging starlet, has spent her life in “mammy” and sidekick roles, desperate for her big break.

She is cast in Chaos in Belleville, along with five other actors – three black and two white.

John is a young, black upstart, determined to make it in the business no matter what.

Sheldon Forrester is an older black actor who refuses to rock the boat, for any reason.

In the beginning you might feel he is aiming to please but at the end you will understand his plight.

Mille Davis is the friendly type  who boasts about her husband’s desire that she give up acting in favor of homemaking.

Of the white cast, young Judy is the classic innocent type. She’s an Ivy League drama graduate. While she doesn’t “know any better”, her intends aren’t bad.

And Bill is set in his older man ways. They are all drawn together by director Al, who is putting together a large production against the odds and hopes to make a play “that says something.”

The liberal white director, Al , abounds when African American leading lady Wiletta objects to some of the racial stereotypes and false assumptions in the well-meaning but offensive script.

Will her fellow actors, black and white, have her back or stay quiet to keep their jobs?

While produced over 50 years ago, Trouble In Mind reminds audiences that society hasn’t charged that much.

While bits of the play will make you laugh, you will be angry and passionate. It will spark a healthy conversation on race.  It will make you question how relevant things are today.

A conversation that was much needed 50s years ago and still today.

The company, directed by Jade King Carroll, includes Two River favorites Robert Hogan (On Borrowed Time), Brenda Pressley (In This House), Steven Skybell (The Electric Baby), and Hayley Treider (Present Laughter), and McKinley Belcher III (Invisible Man), Jonathan David Martin (War Horse), Tony Award-winner Roger Robinson (August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), Brian Russell (The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial), and Amirah Vann (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike).

Performances have begun in Two River’s Rechnitz Theater, 21 Bridge Avenue, and will continue through Sunday, April 27.  Tickets are available from 732.345.1400 or on the website www.trtc.org. The lead production sponsor for Trouble in Mind is Wells Fargo.

Photo Provided By : Two River Theater Co.