Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery, written by Shay Youngblood and poignantly directed by Pegasus Theatre’s Ilesa Duncan, is a paean to family- both biological and chosen- and above all to the bonds between black women, to love that buoys and sustains through hardship and heartbreak. The stand-out cast tell this 1960’s southern coming-of-age tale with a great deal of humor and tenderness.
The set (designed by Elyse Balogh) is spare yet effective, enabling the main character’s memories to play out upon the stage. Daughter, played by Melanie Loren, who is both convincing and immensely likeable in the role, loses her mother Fannie Mae (hauntingly performed by Darian Tene) at a young age and so is raised by a community of women, some related to her by blood, others not. What Big Mama (the warm and charming Felisha ‘Ekudayo’ McNeal) and all of Daughter’s other aunties have in common is an independent, enterprising, fiercely loving spirit, and a desire to safely guide Daughter to adulthood. Although Daughter mourns the loss of her birth mother—and later, struggles to process the systemic racist and misogynist violence that claimed her mother’s life—she never lacks love and support.
The women of Daughter’s life literally appear to her as illuminated pillars, stepping out from behind a screen to inhabit the world of her childhood home, to tell her their stories and advise her as she grows into a woman. The music, directed by Shawn Wallace, is stellar, with a particularly goosebump-inducing vocal performance from Toni Lynice Fountain (the Afrocentric Miss Lamama, whose first husband was from an unspecified African country.) Nicole Clarke Springer’s choreography, too, is powerful, with Tene’s deceased mother dancing a harrowing, devastating sequence.
Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery is a reminder that whatever we achieve and whoever we become in our lives, we don’t do so alone or in a vacuum; it is a tribute to black womanhood in its many forms, to black women who, despite differences of lifestyle and belief, fight to keep each other alive. I would highly recommend seeing this poetic, gorgeous script so lovingly brought to life.
Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery is now playing at Chicago Dramatists, 773 N. Aberdeen, presented by Pegasus Theatre, until December 10. Tickets are available from Pegasus Theatre. Find more information about current plays on our Current Shows page and at theatreinchicago.com.
Review by Jason Rusch.