Raven Theatre presents Joshua Allen’s “The Prodigal Daughter,” the third and final installment of “The Grand Boulevard Trilogy” about Black families living on the South Side of Chicago during the early twentieth century. Race, religion, finance, family, love… the show addresses all these subjects and handles them with care, tact and with hints of comedy, featuring a talented cast of actors led by director Jerrell L. Henderson.
The “prodigal” daughter, Virginia Bass (Stephanie Mattos), is a successful Black saleswoman, a radical achievement despite the societal stipulations placed upon her. She travels the country with her business partner, George Oakley (Stef Brundage), a strapping white male with an overtly exuberant personality. That a Black woman in the early twentieth century could get such a lucrative job and be allowed to travel alone with a white man—and enter customers’ houses through the front door—seems unbelievable… That’s because it is.
The relationship between George and Virginia presents a cogent critique of the “white savior complex.” George means well but acts discreetly and without consulting the one he hopes to help. Can a positive outcome come from deception? Historically, no, but perhaps George will succeed despite history suggesting otherwise.
While passing through Chicago, they decide to stop over at her family home, much to the chagrin of her conservative, working-class father, John (Bradford Stevens), and to the confusion of her verbose and sharp-tongued aunt, Lottie Dickerson (RjW Mays), skittish younger sister, Daisy (Sól Fuller), and ex-boyfriend and local pastor-to-be, Rev. Eugene Maxwell (Bryant Hayes).
The awkward interactions between George and the family are fertile ground for comedy. When his bumbling sales pitch goes off the rails, it leads to Daisy engaging in a violent altercation with a petulant vacuum cleaner.
Mays as Lottie gets all the best lines, inserting sarcastic quips and launching into bountiful tirades against her uptight brother-in-law that are sure to elicit chuckles and guffaws.
Tensions escalate as a race riot breaks out when several Black boys are murdered after being caught playing on the beach north of 28th Street. As gunshots ring out in the neighborhood, the family sequesters themselves overnight in the house, where the pervasive fear and stress leads to revelations of bitter truths long kept secret. Although the show starts out like a comedy, it soon goes deep into philosophical conversations about how far one will demean oneself to achieve ostensible autonomy.
My main critique of the show is that I wish there were more of it. Like Allen’s other entries in the trilogy of plays, the characters are so well-rounded, with backstories so lush, that I wouldn’t mind a trilogy of prequels and sequels that strengthen the connection between each of the three shows’ plotlines. (The Grand Boulevard-verse?)
The cliffhanger ending barely satisfies the appetite; that’s what Allen, Henderson and company are good at, planting the seeds of a conversation that grow in the mind after the show concludes. “The Prodigal Daughter” tells tough truths mixed with enough sugar to help the bitter pill go down easy, a fitting climax to “The Grand Boulevard Trilogy.”
“The Prodigal Daughter” runs through June 22 at Raven Theatre, 6157 North Clark. Showtimes are Thursday-Saturday at 7:30pm; Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $45 ($15 for students, military and industry) at raventheatre.com.
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