A Pied Piper story that doubles as a boldfaced allegory about class and community, “Where We Stand” is rich in its language but vague about what it truly wants to say.
The playwright, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, is also the sole performer (alternating with David Ryan Smith on some dates). She rises from the audience at the start of the show, beginning in song then transitioning into poetry, making her way to an unadorned stage.
She’s our nameless narrator, a down-on-his-luck fellow who describes an encounter with a magical figure and the complications that result.
Genie or imp? Devil or fairy? The stranger arrives dressed in gold and bearing golden gifts — a seed, scythe and spade that our narrator will use to transform the town to an Oz-like paradise.
They’re not in Kansas anymore, however, and, predictably, they all soon forget the debt they owe their smooth-talking benefactor, with unfortunate results.
Produced by WP Theater in association with Baltimore Center Stage, and directed by Tamilla Woodard, the show is unusually understated, despite the fanciful tale at its heart. There’s an intentionally rudimentary story-time feel to it, and Woodard’s direction emphasizes the intimate interactions between Grays and her audience.
She is an affable, uninhibited performer, whether as narrator or as the mysterious stranger, peddling the fable to us via enchanting lyrics and flourishes of humor. Transitions between characters in direct conversation, however, are less tidy.
Yet the language in “Where We Stand” bounces with rhyme, alliteration and wordplay. “There’s a chance, perchance to change my drifter’s circumstance,” Grays jests at one point, before describing the “salted ground” and “sour air” of a crumbling utopia.
Her titillating descriptions and canorous phrasing are a pleasure — so much so that I wished her to go bolder, to set the scene and capture the characters in rich Technicolor.
The peril in “Where We Stand” seems to befall a black community (the script dictates that the narrator be played by an African-American actor), but connections to the workings of contemporary society are unclear. Which makes the play’s final immersive turn — a trial, with the audience as jury — a welcome, if abrupt surprise.
Confronting the real world, which is so absent elsewhere, lends a dose of real-life gravity to the fiction. After all the theatrical fun and games, you’ll eventually have to pay the piper.
Where We Stand
Through March 1 at WP Theater, Manhattan; 866-811-4111, wptheater.org. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes.
Source: Theater - nytimes.com
