theatre review - BLACK PEARL SINGS - Black Theatre Troupe - April 14, 2016

Dzifa Kwawu and Shari Watts
Photo: Laura Durant

Click here for more information on this production that runs through April 24th.

 " Frank Higgins' 2006 play Black Pearl Sings, about a convict and a song collector in the 1930s, is receiving a strong production by the Black Theatre Troupe. It is a play about how powerful music is and the importance of documenting it in order to preserve history. With superb performances from Dzifa Kwawu and Shari Watts it is a rich and rewarding journey....Susannah, a white woman working for the Library of Congress to collect songs, and Pearl, an African-American female convict in the Texas prison where Susannah has currently set up shop. Pearl grew up amongst the Gullah people on Hilton Head Island off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, and Susannah is interested in obtaining from her the rare folk songs she learned from people on the island and hopes that it will help her secure an academic job. Pearl is more interested in finding her daughter, and the two women realize they can use each other to find the freedom they both so eagerly seek.... focuses on racial issues but also touches upon the struggles of women in the male-dominated world of the 1930s. ..David J. Hemphill has done a lovely job directing Kwawu and Watts. They both deeply embody these very strong-willed women, warts and all, and in doing so create realistic individuals. ...Kwawu and Watts are giving two of the strongest and fully fleshed out portrayals I've seen on stage this season. ...Higgins' story of these two women—one black, the other white, one educated, the other not—in the turbulent racial and sexual times of the 1930s, makes for an intriguing but also exceedingly entertaining play. With superb portrayals by Kwawu and Watts, Higgins' tale of the importance of saving and preserving the past makes for a very powerful and emotional experience."  -Gil Benbrook, Talkin' Broadway (click here to read the complete review)