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Gee’s Bend
By Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder
Directed by Chuck Smith
At Northlight Theatre
9501 N. Skokie Blvd
Skokie, IL
Call 847-673-6300, tickets $35 - $55
Tuesdays at 7:30 pm
Wednesdays at 1 & 7:30 pm
Thursdays at 7:30 pm
Fridays at 8 pm
Saturdays at 2:30 & 8 pm
Sundays at 2:30 & 7 pm
Running time is 90 minutes without intermission
Through March 9, 2008
“If you leave your door open for others, they’ll leave theirs open for You.”
--Sadie from Gee’s Bend
Compact epic saga of Southern Black life is a heartwarming experience
In the best tradition of August Wilson, playwright Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder has given us a glimpse into a part of the American experience that few of us knew about. Northlight Theatre’s Midwest Premier of Gee’s Bend is a heartwarming experience deftly directed by Chuck Smith.
Gee’s Bend, Alabama—is surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River and its swamps, became an isolated location populated by 700 African-Americans from the plantation days of slavery. These extremely poor folks were a tight-knit group who sang gospel songs as the worked the cotton fields. The land, their religion and their quilts were precious to them. Playwright Wilder discovered the women of Gee’s Bend when the New York Whitney Museum of Art offered a display of their quilts in 2002. She has captured the spirit of the women in a most compelling and tightly written 90 minute epic drama.
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The intimate drama spans more than sixty years in the life of Sadie Pettway (the fabulous Charlette Speigner) and the women of Gee’s Bend. They sing hauntingly tuneful gospel melodies as they sow their magnificent quilts. The quilts are a metaphor for the memories of their lives as the patches come from worn shirts and dresses. Family histories are included in these quilts. With her mother Alice (and later her daughter Asia), Penelope Walker and the feisty Jacqueline Williams as Aunt Nella, Sadie emerges as a great quilt artist and a strong, liberated woman who marched with Dr. King in the 60’s in Selma, Alabama. (The play is based on actual women of the time.) John Steven Crowley plays Macon, Sadie’s husband who loves her and the land at Gee’s Bend. He treats Sadie firmly for the first twenty-five years of their marriage but his inability to deal with the radical change in society with the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s leads him to lash out at Sadie resulting in him physically beating her. Sadie was ready to leave Macon but his fatal sickness compels her to stay and nurture him on his death bed.
We see Sadie and Nella as the years pile up. They are financially liberated when Sears and Bloomingdale start buying their quilts in 1965. This fast paced epic bridges the lifestyle that was stuck in the post slavery sharecropping days right up to the liberating New Deal government polices of the late 1930’s when Blacks could own the land they cultivated.
We witness Sadie and Nella emerge as determined survivors despite a life of abuse, racial indignities and the hardship of poverty. This is a wonderful portrait of the human spirit. Charlette Speigner commands her role as Sadie with astutely intense looks and body language filled with deep seeded energy and rage. Jacqueline Williams is terrific as the funny and confused Aunt Nella. Penelope Walker and John Steven Crowley offer excellent performances. Gee’s Bend is a refreshing resilient glimpse into the heart of a strong people. Gee’s Bend is more than a place, it is a way of life. The quilts give testimony to the art and craft of the folks of Gee’s Bend. Theses stories sure need to be told.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: February 6, 2008
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