By Kimberly Rau
Trinity Repertory is ending its 2024–25 season with Pearl Cleage’s beautiful lyrical drama “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” and, as if you’d expect anything else from the company at this point, it’s incredible.
Set in 1930s Harlem, “Blues” features five characters brought together through a series of unlikely circumstances. Angel Allen is a newly-fired nightclub singer, who, at the top of the show, is practically being carried home by her best friend Guy, and a mysterious southern gentleman. We later learn he’s Leland, up from Alabama to try and escape his grief after losing his wife and son. There’s Delia, the unassuming and kind-hearted neighbor across the hall from Guy. Proof that there’s more to someone than meets the eye, Delia is working with Margaret Sanger to try and get a birth control clinic opened in Harlem. And we have Sam, a doctor with a larger-than-life personality who is worn out from work, but refuses to rest at the expense of his nighttime revelry (yes, this is Prohibition, and no, most of the group doesn’t care).
What is immediately clear is that everyone is trying to survive in their own way, but their methods, often borne out of grief, loss or financial instability, don’t always net the best results. Still, they soldier on, celebrating their successes, trying not to give up on their dreams, and dealing with the consequences from their choices as they come.
Though it is set nearly 100 years ago, the themes in “Blues” are just as relevant now as ever, and, under Jackie Davis’s direction, the show positively soars. Cleage’s script is full of difficult topics, including race, sexuality, politics and religion, and Davis does not try to sugar-coat or downplay them. Instead, the characters are showcased in all their flawed, deeply human, painful glory. Davis is a Trinity Rep. company member, but this was the first chance I’d had to see her directing skills, and all I can say is: More. More, please, and soon.
Davis’s actors are well-cast and up to the challenges each role holds. Though no play worth its salt is going to give you two-dimensional characters to grapple with, portraying any of Cleage’s characters seems like acting on Expert Mode. Fortunately, Trinity’s stage is full of experts.
Cloteal L. Horne is Angel, a woman who is really good at getting what she thinks she wants (often to her detriment). A born survivor, Angel counters her fear of abandonment by being the one to leave; her fear of being hurt by being the one whose words cut the deepest. She battles her fear of failure by denouncing having dreams. Angel looks out for number one because, at least until Guy came along, no one was looking out for her. Horne does Angel justice and then some.
Guy, on the other hand, has never given up on his dreams, even when the improbable seems downright impossible. He refuses to compromise who he is, even when it might be safer to do otherwise, and he, like Angel, accepts his best friend for who she is, flaws and all. Taavon Gamble plays Guy with all the passion and flair the role begs for, with beautiful result.
Leland is the polar opposite of Guy in all ways, and has definite ideas of what it means to be a man, and how women should behave (surprise, they are at odds with the rest of our characters’ views). Leland is the embodiment of the statement “hurt people hurt people” and Quinn West does a nice job with a character who’s set up to be hated. West is particularly good at letting us see Leland’s vulnerable side, reminding us there’s a person inside all that narrowmindedness and anger.
Meagan Dilworth is Delia, a sweet-spirited woman with a spine of steel. Though she seems naïve at first, Delia is clear-thinking, realistic, and able to stand up to anything life throws at her. Dilworth is perfect at intertwining Delia’s innocence with her pragmatism. And Dereks Thomas as the affable and big-hearted Sam is excellent at keeping that mask up until the women in his life call him out in one way or another, at which point, his full humanity is on display. It’s a beautiful job by the entire cast.
Visually, “Blues” is stunning. Amber Voner’s costumes are gorgeous and perfect for each character. Michael McGarty did the sets, an open-plan side-by-side of two apartments split by a hallway frame. At all times, we can see Delia’s austere accommodations juxtaposed with the furniture-crammed decadence just next door. The biggest scenes in the show take place with all five actors crammed into Guy and Angel’s place, a visual representation of the claustrophobia driving the characters to seek something more than what they have. Of course, you can run from the room, and you can run from your present company, but for better or worse, you can’t escape who you are.
This vital show should be played everywhere, though it seldom is. Lucky for you, it’s in Providence right now. Go.
“Blues for an Alabama Sky” runs through June 29, 2025, at the Trinity Repertory Company, 201 Washington St., Providence. Tickets may be obtained at the box office, online at trinityrep.com or by calling 401.351.4242.
