Shutter Sisters
When I saw the announcement for this play, I assumed it was about photographers. Imagine my shock when I found out it’s about two women who sell shutters – window shutters – for a living.
But that’s only one of many surprises in the world premiere of Mansa Ra’s “Shutter Sisters,” the newest play to open at The Old Globe’s White Theatre. This play, commissioned by the Globe, is so unusual that it’s difficult even to describe.
The setting is Atlanta in 2019. Two women – one African American, one Caucasian and named, oddly enough, Mykal (Terry Burrell) and Michael (Shana Wride), are onstage in-the-round at the White the whole time, alternately telling us their stories about adoption, friendship, family and finding your own way in life. (Their names are both pronounced “Michael.”)
Burrell and Wride are excellent as the adoptees who both want answers only their birth mother(s) can provide.
But they don’t just stand and deliver their lines, and they aren’t necessarily inhabiting the same time frame at any given moment. And Director Donya Washington has them both walking in circles the whole time.
Yep. This is an unusual play.
The talk is largely about family, but also about race. Both of these women were adopted, Michael into a family with two boys, Drew and Andy, who are described but not seen.
Mykal’s story is a bit different, and I’m not going to reveal how because that’s part of the plot.
Mansa Ra has managed to get pathos, jealousy, bigheartedness, belonging, joy, death and enlightenment, all into a 90-minute play with no intermission. It’s quite an achievement.
Wride, frequently seen on local stages, is excellent as the instigator of the plot. Broadway veteran Burrell’s Mykal, a bit more “ouchy” as a result of racial profiling, turns in a likewise stellar performance.
Wilson Chin’s sets, Kara Harmon’s costumes and Zach Murphy’s lighting and Chris Lane’s sound design all do their job without calling attention from the action.
The only problem with this show is the insufficiency of the sound. Keeping actors in the round in constant motion without body mikes means it is unlikely that anybody in the audience hears all the lines. This could easily be fixed, and should be.
But welcome to a fascinating new voice in American theater.
“Shutter Sisters” plays through November 7, 2021 at the Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. Shows Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday nights at 7 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 pm.
For tickets: www.TheOldGlobe.org or (619) 234-5623
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