Quoting Julie Woodside a Sacramento Theatre Company patron expressing her thoughts of the performance Black Pearl Sings! at STC:
The play itself is superior writing - poignant, luminous, heartbreaking - but the main actress is one of those rare gems to arrive in Sacramento for a brief period from the "outside" world of acting. Of the two women in the show, one of them is really, really good, and the other one is amazing. Not that we don't have excellent talent in all the theaters in Sacramento, but Crystal Fox is just that difference that makes you sit up and say "Oh, my!" She's magnetic, compelling, astonishing. She has a resume which includes film, TV and national stages, including the cook in Driving Miss Daisy, and a recurring role on the series In The Heat of The Night... her polish and talent is riveting in such a small space as the Pollock Stage at the STC. Every seat feels like front-row-center.
The play and the characters are fictional, yet records a true period in America during the great depression when academia realized the "folk story" and cultural value of things African-American. The play highlights the subtle oppressions of being female, of being educated, of being black, of being poor and of being ambitious in the world of the 1930's. The uneasy friendship that develops between two women of opposite temperaments, class, culture, race and longings is breathtaking, hopeful and heartbreaking - and absolutely stunning to watch in this 85 seat theater.
If you like theater at all, I hope you will get a chance to see this show. It runs through Mother's Day, May 9th. I realize I sound like a reviewer, but I wrote every word, and I wish I knew more superlatives to include! I hope to see it at least once more, it was simply one of the best pieces of theater I've seen in Sacramento - and I've seen a fair share! If you go, try to get there about 45minutes early so you can hear the "prologue" where they give a mini-talk about the playwright and the history of the setting of the play.
Ok,,, I'll end here, lest I say too much! Enjoy!
Julie
