This inner city drama starts with a compelling monologue by a strong African American grandmother Lena (Cherene Snow) tasked with raising two children. They were orphaned by a father who took four in the chest and their Asian mother Merrell (Jackie Chung) who, while struggling with addiction, abandoned them.
The kids are Tray (John Clarence Stewart) an amateur boxer aspiring for a scholarship to college and the emotionally traumatized child Devine (Sally Diallo), who is nurtured and protected by her older brother.
With generally fine acting, particularly some cool moves by Stewart, this play has promising elements. Tray and Devine dancing and playing together is an emotional highpoint of the uneven drama. But the story line of talented kids gunned down by gang violence, while true, is too readily familiar to create any new variations or surprises. The script seems more suitable for TV than a theater festival. Beyond that, there are plot lines that just don’t jell. We are well into the play before we have a handle on Merrell and why she is so despised by Lena. It’s confusing to follow her self-deprecating and cowering responses to the other characters. Mostly her position in the play, tutor to Tray, abandoning mother of Devine, just never equates. There is that all too predictable eventuality when, duh, Tray is popped seemingly randomly by, guess what, four in the chest. Like father, then like son. In a flashback, Tray reappears to read that too, too eloquent college application letter. Yet again hopes and dreams have been snuffed by gang violence. Oh please, Ms Lee, spare me. Surely you can do better than that.
