In The Session, playwright Harvey Williams writes with such compassion for his characters that hes likely to win most viewers over, even if they conclude that the show isnt quite ready for prime time. Give a lot of credit to his cast five actresses who make the characters their own and perform with absolute commitment.
The set up is a two-hour anger management session that several women are obliged to attend by court order. They represent a cross-section in terms of age and ethnicity.
Theres an angry middle-aged black woman (Lynn King), a young woman of color with an attitude (Alexandria Washington), a Latina with a quirky personality (Nicole Santorella) and a young rural white woman (Vanessa Harper) with a troubled family history.
Marilyn Lynch plays the distracted facilitator, who repeatedly returns to her desk to pop pills from a prescription bottle.
Williams directs the show with an uncertain hand and generally the blocking and timing arent what they need to be. On the other hand, he gives his actresses plenty of breathing room to inhabit their roles and that they do.
King and Lynch, the two stage veterans in the show, perform with all the assurance you would expect. Lynch has her way with the script as she crafts a comic performance that takes the audience in an unexpected direction. King is at her best during a fiery monologue about her bitter vision of the role assigned to black women in society.
Washington demonstrates a gift for comic timing but also achieves emotional depth as someone who takes comfort in isolation. Harper brings clarity to a role that could have easily descended into stereotype and Santorella is riveting in a monologue about being seen as a foreigner in a country built by immigrants.
Williams emphasis on cultural differences is a bit heavy-handed in the early going, but as the show progresses we encounter an affirmative story about women finding common ground.
As we saw in Williams play Old School Ghetto Gospel earlier this year, the playwright likes to surprise his audience with comic reversals. In The Session one character isnt what she initially seems to be, and the payoff is a huge helping of ironic humor.
Beyond the play itself, the production is seasoned by two local poets Mz Angela Roux and Cheri Woods who perform at the beginning of each act. Woods material, most of which she sings a cappella in what be called an Americana style, exhibits clever wordplay. Roux is a charismatic performer who demonstrates such an impressive emotional range with her verse that she could easily take her place among Williams characters and fit right in.
Article source: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/24/4433416/humor-compassion-are-chief-attributes.html