Strong points underscore the laughs
‘Sweet Water Taste’ looks at what it means to belong
When Elijah Beckford says he doesn’t want anyone telling him where his Black, wrinkly butt should be buried, there’s a lot to unpack.
That’s because at the heart of Gloria Bond Clunie’s “Sweet Water Taste” is the question of why should anyone tell any of us where we belong — especially for all eternity.
Onstage in a full production at Orlando Shakes, where it was previously read as part of PlayFest, “Sweet Water Taste” is best when it lets the audience think about that concept naturally.
On the flip side, Clunie and director Dawn Monique Williams occasionally hit the audience over the head with their points — especially when introducing the members of the white branches on the Beckford family tree. They’re entitled, blind to their privilege and during their long, argumentative first scene totally unlikeable.
That changes some as the play progresses but one has to admire Elijah for walking into such an off-putting household. He’s there because of a near-death experience in which an angel with an attitude sends him back to this mortal coil to take care of unfinished business. For generations, the white Beckfords have been buried in a private cemetery; the Black Beckfords — coming from an interracial coupling of generations ago — have not been invited in.
Elijah, a successful undertaker, decides it’s time to change that. His white cousin Charlie isn’t having it. That conflict fuels the comedy, though as you might expect from the premise, the play is deliberately not a nonstop laugh-fest.
Still, the comic elements are strong — whether based in dialogue, character or the occasional sight gag.
Clune teases us with an unexplored back story — why is Charlie’s son seemingly struggling with alcohol? What happened to the husband of Elijah’s daughter? — but she knows how to use words to grab attention. Elijah’s son, Nathan, describes one cemetery as “whiter than a Klan rally in a snowstorm.”
Elijah is by far the most fully developed and interesting character in the play, and Michael J. Asberry makes the most of the man’s layers. He’s mischievous, loving, cranky, a bit of a blowhard, and most of all, determined to follow his conscience. Asberry has fun with all those qualities and uses them to make Elijah a human being, not just an avatar for doing what is right.
Avis-Marie Barnes does fine work as Elijah’s loyal wife, and Cherise James delights as the no-nonsense angel. Gannon McHale wisely doesn’t try to elicit sympathy from the audience for Charlie, while Andy Gion as his son, Charlieboy, lands his punch lines well. It hurts both characters that their father-son relationship is nebulous at best.
Anne Hering shrewdly hides the inner strength of Charlie’s wife until the right moment to reveal it, and Chris Lindsay makes more of Nathan than is on the page. A 2021 Orlando Sentinel Critic’s Pick for his acting, Lindsay assuredly captures the divide between younger and older Black generations — the former not fully understanding what their elders endured, the latter not always appreciating the particular challenges that remain.
And with a mixture of anger and pride, Lindsay beautifully delivers Clune’s elegant line summing up a race’s hurt caused by centuries of abuse: “I’m not gonna stand in some white man’s house and beg for 6 feet of dirt.”
Around all the comic arguing, that’s a moment that will stick with you.
Find me on Twitter @matt_ on_arts, facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Want more theater and arts news and reviews? Go to orlandosentinel.com/ arts. For more fun things, follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.