Jordan Wright
May 11, 2015
Special to The Alexandria Times
L to R) Meeya Davis as Amber, Nikiya Mathis as Cassan, Caroline Clay as Gio, Afi Bijou as Zambia and Tonye Patano as Clementine in Katori Hall’s The Blood Quilt – Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
Earth, wind and fire blew into town for the world premiere of The Blood Quilt now at Arena Stage. Written by Katori Hall, who based the story on the Gullah Geechee culture of Sapelo Island, and directed by Kamilah Forbes, this soul-wrenching play, filled with the tears, anger and laughter of a family divided by distance and psychological baggage and held together by the power of sisterhood.
Four sisters, Clementine, Gio, Cassan and Amber, and Cassan’s daughter, Zambia, gather together on the windswept island of Kwemera, one of Georgia’s Sea Islands, and the African word for “endure”. The scene is the ancestral cottage of the Jerrnigans and home of their recently departed mother – – a woman they both revered and feared. Each summer the women craft a new quilt, stitched together from clothing and rags handed down from family members. Woven into these quilts are their deepest memories, gut-wrenching hardships and personal failures. It is within these stitches that they tell their truths in a story as old as time and as foreseeable as the circle of life.
(Clockwise from left) Tonye Patano as Clementine, Meeya Davis as Amber, Caroline Clay as Gio, Nikiya Mathis as Cassan and Afi Bijou as Zambia in Katori Hall’s The Blood Quilt – Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
To provide the foundation for this story, it is important to know that hundreds of years ago Geechee culture, as it is called, arrived by boat from West Africa onto these remote Georgian islands. Slave ships bore men and women who were sold off to work on the islands’ rice plantations. After the Civil War some of the freed slaves stayed behind, becoming landowners and raising many more generations. The dialect they spoke is still heard today and is echoed throughout the play.
Within this mysterious world spiritualism, mythology and shibboleths run deep, influenced by the stars and the sea. These traditions provide a singularly rich backdrop for this comic-drama, recalling the evocative film Daughters of the Dust that drew on the African-centric Gullah culture of North Carolina.
Much of the Geechee’s mysterious customs and rituals are threaded throughout this deeply affecting tale reflecting a legacy of memories embodied by the fabric scraps incorporated into the quilts. The play turns around the question of who will inherit the one hundred precious quilts. And therein lies the rub.
Set Designer, Michael Carnahan, has created a breathtaking stage set that features a simple cabin set beside a shoreline. An arc of waist-deep water frames the proscenium and patches of crazy quilts hang from the rafters. Delicate Spanish moss sways over the rooftop and the whole is bathed in a roseate hue, courtesy of Lighting Designer, Michael Gilliam. Snippets of old time gospel music are sung in harmony, and the classic “I’ll Fly Away” evokes the contrasting confluence of church combined with tribal culture.
(L to R) Tonye Patano as Clementine and Meeya Davis as Amber in Katori Hall’s -. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
Clementine (Tonye Patano), who takes direction from the natural world, is the eldest. Assuming her new role as matriarch, she shushes and bosses her younger siblings, insisting they carry out what she believes their mother would have wanted. “Mama was my god,” she reminds them. But her interpretation is not borne out by their mother’s will. Meeya Davis plays Amber, “Perfection is my shield and my protection,” she reveals. A successful Hollywood attorney and Harvard grad, she has been given the responsibility of reading the will. Davis gives a razor-sharp performance with elegance and wit to match Patano’s commanding presence.
(L to R) Caroline Clay as Gio and Afi Bijou as Amber, with Nikiya Mathis as Cassan, in Katori Hall’s The Blood Quilt – Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
Caroline Clay soars in the role of Gio, a tough talking, beer-guzzling cop cursed with a chip on her shoulder as wide as the sea. Why, we wonder, is she so angry? Cassan (Nikiya Mathis) has brought her daughter Zambia (Afi Bijou) who is a hijab-wearing, political activist just beginning to spread her wings. Bijou proves she is well up to the challenge of playing against such seasoned actors in a role that calls for her to be the polar opposite of the others.
The cast is as tightly woven together as the quilts they covet in this haunting and hugely comical play filled with the ghosts of the past, the challenges of modern life, and the guidance of an ancient culture imported from an Africa they never knew.
Highly recommended.
Through June 7th at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St., SE, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information call 202 488-3300 or visit www.ArenaStage.org.
Dr. Joan Gaither in front of one of her quilts
* * Be sure to wander through the theatre to view the seventeen spectacular contemporary quilts created by Dr. Joan Gaither of Baltimore. These exquisite quilts use appliqué and trapunto stitching on lush velvet and brocade to tell a modern story. They will be on display throughout the run of the show. I had an opportunity to meet Dr. Gaither during press night and query her about the meaning of her quilts and the importance of this show. “Quilting comes from the soul. I’m not a traditional quilter, although I believe each quilt can hold and tell an entire story. The images I use celebrate those stories. I try to do that in such a way that they become American stories, because I believe we all share a common history.”