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Forever
by Deirdre Donovan Dael Orlandersmith returns to New York Theatre Workshop with her new semi-autobiographical show Forever. If you have never seen this gifted author-actress on stage, now is your chance to catch her in a tour de force performance. Forget about gilding the lily! Orlandersmith goes for the truth here. She boldly explores her roots in Harlem, her troubled relationship with her mother, and how she slowly forged her own personal identity. In her 80-minute monologue, Orlandersmith covers a lot of emotional ground and those hard-won battles that continue to define her life today. As Orlandersmith strolls onto the stage at the opener, she glances at photos that line the walls of the performing space. One hears a recording of Marianne Faithfull’s “Ghost Dance” playing softly in the background. Once at center stage, Orlandersmith quietly lights a candle on a small table that is bare except for a few books and an old-fashioned record player. There is a pregnant silence for a moment—and then Orlandersmith turns to the audience and begins her narrative in earnest.
Strangely, Orlandersmith doesn’t begin with a reverie about her early life and growing up in New York. She invites us on a ride that takes us to Paris, the City of Light, and to the stillness of Pere Lachaise Cemetary. Orlandersmith, in fact, bookends her memory play with this hushed graveside setting to underscore that she has two families, one biological and the other spiritual. Orlandersmith invites the audience to eavesdrop as she communes with those famous people in the cemetery who no longer live in the flesh but the spirit. She stands among the headstones of the greats like Balzac, Modigliani, Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Collette, Proust. And more. And, as Orlandersmith converses with their ghosts, she confides to the audience that she considers these iconic personages as her nearest and dearest: “”I am seeking these family/ these living resting people/ These people who are really my family / who I really WANT to be my family . . .“THESE people here in Pere Lachaise – who beyond our parents helped us give birth to ourselves.” The bulk of the monologue centers on her troubled relationship with her mother, who left deep emotional scars on her. She combs through the ashes of her childhood in Harlem and relates what it was like growing up with a mother who suffered from a bi-polar disorder. Her voice increasingly becomes edged with anger as she delves into the raw pain of her childhood and the paucity of love in her home. And one learns that it was only when Orlandersmith confronted the fact that her mother couldn’t give her what she emotionally needed that she was able to begin her own authentic life journey. While Orlandersmith is intent in exploring the mother-and-daughter relationship, she also reveals one of her darkest experiences ever. She recounts a rape by a total stranger when she was a young girl, in all its graphic details, in her Harlem home. When Orlandersmith reported it to the police, and they came to her home and rushed her to Metropolitan Hospital, she reveals that awaiting treatment, her thoughts drifted to Bessie Smith who died there. The production values are all in place. Takeshi Kata’s modest set is apropos, as is Kaye Voyce’s equally understated costume. This show, in fact, exudes with the less-is-more maxim. Mary Louise Geiger’s lighting design leans into a twilight effect—and sometimes plunges the stage into near-darkness with only flickering candle-light glowing at center stage. Adam Phalen’s sound design compliments the piece without overpowering Orlandersmith’s voice. As sensitively directed by Neel Keller, this piece is more than navel-gazing but a moving account of how Orlandersmith refused to become a victim of her tough-luck circumstances. Even more remarkable is how she ultimately spins her story into one of forgiveness and redemption. From the ashes, Orlandersmith rises phoenix-like and wiser. And if you make a visit to the New York Theatre Workshop this May before Orlandersmith leaves the venue, so will you. Through Sunday, May 31. 
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