Well, this wasn't the Upfront Comedy production promised in the National Black Theater Festival brochure, but with most of the spotlight on the chameleonic British writer/character actor Marcus Powell, the last minute switch didn't seem to matter. Powell's characterizations skewed toward the drunken, dissolute dregs of the underclass and toward nerdy romantic flops or assholes -- with the occasional lout tossed in for good measure. Each of these portraits was a luminous gem, none more so than the poor old drunken, Caribbean sex philosopher, Uncle Roy, who confides: "I wish I had a dollar for every woman I've satisfied. Then I'd have a dollar and fifty cents!"
The female half of this "two-handed revue about relationships," actress/singer Yvette Rochester-Duncan, was noticeably outclassed in this hurried, sometimes chaotic presentation. R-D's grasp on her lines could be tenuous. Even her singing on the lascivious "Peel Me a Grape" was surprisingly lackluster. But she blossomed in adversity.
After the flimsy backdrop crashed to the stage during a scene change, causing an unscheduled intermission, Duncan came back at her best in "Afternoon Delight." Dissecting the first tryst between a shy, cuckolded dry cleaner and his wife's hairdresser, this tawdry motel dialogue was also the best demonstration of the full range of Powell's comic and dramatic powers. The zingers hurled at Powell became progressively more lethal as this philandering launderer transformed from a figure a fun to an object of pity and contempt. My admiration for Powell, who also accompanied Duncan on guitar, kept growing all evening long. Already a BBC fixture, he's a voice we'll certainly hear more of.
