1st Stage: Mlima's Tale

 This weekend illustrates two of the things that I love the best about Theater in the DMV.  On a single weekend you can go to one of the oldest and probably the most historically significant theater in the nation (Ford's Theater in DC) and see a classic American Play ("The Trip To Bountiful" by Horton Foote) on Saturday, and then on Sunday see an exciting new play (Milma's Tale) by one of our rising star playwrights (Lynn Nottage) at a relatively new, scrappy regional theatre troupe (1st Stage in Tysons, VA).  It's all the best that theatre has to offer.  

My only complaint is that 1st Stage is still refraining from printing playbills.  I'm sorry, it's the one souvenir that should be part of every trip to see a play or musical.

That notwithstanding, Mlima's Tale was powerfully and beautifully crafted.  Mlima (Mountain in Swahili) is one of the last old tusk elephants left in the wilds of Kenya.  The play begins with a beautiful long monologue of the live and generations of Mlima and his herd.  This if followed by his death at the hands of Somali poachers.  An intentionally wrenching scene after which Mlima becomes a ghost.  Unable to separate his spirit front his treasured massive tusks we are taken their journey from their smuggling away from Kenya to Vietnam and the finally China.  

Jeremy Keith Hunter portrays Mlima, majestic in life, tortured in death.  It is a tour de force performance from an actor I've enjoyed watching grow over the years.  Hunter is joined by a trio of actors: Andrew V. Ly, Diedra Lawan Starnes, and Shaquille Stewart.  Each plays 8 to 10 other characters of various ethnicities and genders with a range of accents that often mark their transitions with the clear efficiency of flipping a switch.  They function with an ease as an ensemble that was highlighted by an electrical problem that briefly brought the performance to a pause.  The performance was so good, that even this unwelcome incident did nothing to tarnish my enjoyment.  

One of the hallmarks of 1st Stage in my mind is the way in which the lighting and the sets are always so intertwined into a single component.  When you weave in the work of such a fine cast, you get the magic you always hope for.  I was the first, but not the last to rise to my feet in applause.

Jeremy Keith Hunter as Mlima in the opening monologue

Mlima's death throws

A local official who orchestrated Mlima's poaching (Shaquille Stewart) convincing his nephew (Andrew V. Ly) who is head of the security force charges with protecting Mlima

Andrew V. Ly and Jeremy Keith Hunter, Mlima expressing gratitude for the attempt to find the truth of his murder and reject corruption

The game reserve's director (Deidra Lawan Starnes) holding a press conference to answer questions regard the death of Mlima, a national icon in Kenya

Ly as a Vietnamese diplomat interested in smuggling Mlima's tusks out of Kenya

Starnes as the wife of wealthy Chinese businessman who purchases the tusks as a present for her husband and a show piece for their new penthouse apartment

The unveiling of carved tusks