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Fabulation or the Re-Education of Undine
By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Jason Loewith
At Next Theatre
In the Noyes Cultural Center
927 Noyes Street
Evanston, IL
Call 847-475-1875
Thursdays at 7:30 PM
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM
Sundays at 3 PM
No show on April 16
Special show on Saturday April 15 at 2 PM
Monday, May 1 at 7 PM
Running time 2 hours with intermission
Through May 7, 2006
Fabulation is a sometimes funny satire
Next Theatre’s production of Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation or, the Re-Education of Undine, now in its Midwest premiere, is a showcase for the marvelous Jacqueline Williams last seen in Fences at Court Theatre.
Williams carries Fabulation with her sheer talent. She takes a contrived, predictable comic satire that turns into a serious melodrama and she makes it somewhat work. She is the reason you might want to catch Fabulation.
I have mixed feeling about this show. I appreciate the satire, the slap at the nouveau riche Blacks and the digs at the poor working class ghetto folks. But I didn’t find the play funny. The opening night audience found the African-Americans laughing but the whites simply smiled not sure if they should laugh or not. I found some of the stereotypes offensive. Director Jason Loewith has the cast correctly over playing the script going for all the laughs.
We meet Undine (Jacqueline Williams all full of sparkle as she commands the stage) who aggressively runs her boutique PR firm specializing in the affluent Manhattan “buppies” (Black yuppies). Undine is a sophisticated, Eastern Establishment educated former project child who changed her name from Sharona Watkins to Undine Barnes-Calles. She married an Argentinean socialite playboy, Harve (Dale Rivera), who after getting her pregnant, took off with all her money. Undine is broke and her PR firm is wiped out.
This riches-to-rags satire would have been a terrific fable but playwright Nottage pulls a bait-and-switch with an unexpected shift in tone and plot direction that flattened the play. Better to keep the extreme comic satire than take Undine back into the projects so she can struggle for personal survival and fulfillment.
We never buy into why Undine has to return to the projects simply because she is broke. What about personal loans to keep her afloat while she gets her resume into circulation? Certainly a Dartmouth College education with her experience running a public relations firm would land her a position before she had to slide back to the projects. A commanding, egotistical personality like Undine would never return to the projects especially after 15 years of estrangement from her family.
But playwright Nottage wants to write about the working class poor and the drug recovery groups so she puts Undine in a preposterous situation that is such a drastic shift that the play bogs down into a serious unfunny drama. Undine’s poor family is insulting to the public housing poor folks.
Jacqueline Williams, Allen Gilmore and Dale Rivera are wasted in this play. Act one and Williams’ terrific work makes this show partially interesting. Too bad Nottage shifted from the promising satirical comedy of act one.
Somewhat Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed April 10, 2006
Jeff Recommended
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