Blackberry Productions, Inc. presents
The Rootwoman (yes the color thing is how it is on the program flyer)
written by Michael Bradford
directed by John-Martin Green

I think the thing I loved the most about this play is that the three reallyreally old ladies sitting in front of me laughed at things I don't understand yet.

I had seen one of Bradford's plays (Willie's Cut & Shine) before -- last year? -- and, I now see that he's all about parables, morality plays. I think this one is the more successful because it is more straightforward and more cohesive: each character was telling his part of the one story, rather than in WC&S, where I think each character had his own story to tell. Hmm. That comment makes me look stupid. Here's a better analogy: the stories in WC&S didn't quite seem to weave together to me; their connection to each other was the arbitrary locus of a barbershop. Here, in The Rootwoman, no character could have evolved, learned his or her lesson, in any other place at any other time or in any other situation, nor without all of the other characters evolving and learning their lessons as well. There! That's better.