When white Irish American Thomas Gibbons appropriated black African-American slang to title his play, Bee-Luther-Hatchee, was it presumptive and maybe an attempt to be deceptive? Or artistic and justified? His play poses similar questions as it presents "an absurd or ironic situation," as well as a "last stop after a train to a folkloric Biblical hell" - the title's meanings.
An opening spotlight shines on Shelita Burns (well tailored and intense - if somewhat stiff - Lanette Ware), editor of a small publisher's series of "lost voices" of black American experience, accepting a prestigious award. It honors Libby Price, an elderly black recluse. Her best-selling memoirs describe her travels through the postbellum South like smoke from a soul on fire. When Shelita sets out to get the award to Libby, whom she regards as a spiritual mother though they've never met, she gets the surprise of both their lives. What follows comes down to a debate, never resolved, over whether artists have the right in their work to appropriate others' ethnic or gender-related experiences. Examined too: what makes a literary work authentic? When does an assumed identity become a stolen one? Finally, as writer Sean Leonard (richly emotional though unconventional hero Bernie Sheredy) questions, where lies the most important truth - in author or the written words?
In pursuit of the mysterious Libby (compelling Connie Winston), who appears episodically to speak or act out "her" memoirs, Shelita is encouraged by upbeat friend Anna. Celeste Ciulla emphasizes Anna's fidelity and briefly doubles as a charitable nurse/nun. Her cautioning may be prophetic. Sheffield Chastain contrasts well the roles of a tenacious interviewer and an enigmatic white man Libby once "lived with."
Martin LaPlatney directs with style, picking up on the literary and scenographic metaphors of smoke (Libby's for her soul). Under Ethan Kaplan's superbly varied lighting, scenes appear and dissolve smoothly. Questions posed by Gibbons, if not satisfied, are yet satisfying to a thinking audience.
