‘brownsville song’ by Philadelphia Theatre Company (second review)

In brownsville song (b-side for tray), Kimber Lee shows us the death of a young black man, Tray (Curtiss Cook Jr.), from the viewpoint of the people around him — his feisty, grieving grandmother Lena (Catrina Ganey), his half-sister Devine (Kaatje Welsh), and his estranged recently sober stepmother Merrell (Sung Yun Cho). It’s the part of the story we see only for a moment, the family who lost a loved one, “so you gon’ feel bad and move on,” Lena tells us in her opening monologue.

In a sense, the play is ripped from the headlines. The character of Lena was personified recently by the Baltimore mom who made news slapping her son as she dragged him away from the riots in that city. (For more thoughts on Toya Graham, click here.) The death in the play is the result of black on black violence, senseless violence that doesn’t even get the killer the gang points he was looking for, and not a white cop killing a black kid who may or may not have been breaking the law. But it is all too heartbreakingly similar.

Tray is a good kid with a passion for boxing that we hear about but don’t see. He’s endearing and annoying and exactly what a young man should be who lives on the edge of danger, even if he does drink milk from the jug when his grandmother’s not looking. He’s writing an essay to win a scholarship, but he doesn’t want to write an essay about hardship and struggle — he sees himself succeeding.

The character who holds the story together is Merrell, the addict who abandoned her daughter and hasn’t been allowed back in the family. She’s trying to find a way to connect, even working for Tray at Starbucks while she coaches him with his essay.

Time jumps

This play has been around for a while — it’s coproduced with the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, and these actors have played these roles before — yet it still has a workshop feel to it. The time jumps from past to present, always reminding us that Tray is a part of the story even when he’s gone. And Devine, the child of the future, just sits and waits on the fringe of things, at one moment a dancing weeping willow, at another an abandoned child waiting to be walked home. The set (designed by Scott Bradley) encompasses a kitchen set beneath subway tracks, a reminder of the dangerous streets that lurk just outside the safety of home.

But what does this play have to offer us at a time when we need healing? Is it enough to say that Tray was a good kid in the wrong place at the wrong time, and his loss hurts everyone? In our fictions we are always killing someone; it seems like the thing to do. How can we teach children differently when we entertain ourselves with violence? Is it all up to the feisty grandmother to hold things together and save the world even as she struggles with her own sadness and loss?

For Dan Rottenberg's review, click here.

For Rhonda Davis’s review, click here.