COSTA MESA, California — The ‘Fireflies’ in Donja R. Love’s tale of things that go boom in the air refer to the souls of the four little girls killed in the Birmingham Alabama Church bombing in 1963 at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
In a winning and emotional memoir, Love starts at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and in the Playbill states: “Freedom is Never Really Won”.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s those of color, homosexual, bi or transgender, queer or active in the Civil Rights movement lived under a threat that hung over them like the plague. Some might have memories if sit ins at drug store counters, Rosa Parks, Emmet Till, Martin Luther King Jr., the Little Rock school standoff blocking Blacks from attending an all-white school, the Ku Klux Klan murder of three Northern boys who tried to register voters in Mississippi, white supremacy and violence, cross burnings, or George Wallace.
None of it was pretty. I was not aware, as Love points out, that two out of three women “who founded The Black Lives Matter movement were queer” nor that “black women have been at the forefront of every major social movement in America.”
Had I known that, I might not have been taken aback when Olivia (Christina Clark) was writing letters to God and her ‘friend’ Ruby: Dear Ruby, It’s been a while. The sky…it’s been burning so bright since you left. It reminds me of you.”
Charles (Lester Purry) and Christina have known each other since childhood picking tobacco together when their families were sharecroppers. According to Charles, now a preacher, he knew he would marry her some day. According to her, not so much. Of course they married and their onstage chemistry is credible and worthy of the two even as they portray a marriage on rocky ground.
The play opens after bursts of fire fill the sky and booms shatter the quiet. We find ourselves in their kitchen after Charles has arrived home from eulogizing the four children killed after a bomb exploded at the 16th Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama The headlines read: “Hate -Triggered Church Blast Kills 4 Little Girls”.
We learn that the two of them are involved in the Civil Rights movement. Violence begets violence as each day passes. She feels the weight of depression when home alone most of the time. She writes all his speeches and he gets all the credit; she doesn’t trust him while he’s on the road doing his pastoral duties. The sky is a red glow that deeply disturbs her, and the booms has her crying out to God, “When will it stop?”
Both are worn out and weary from the toll that the destruction, physical and mental, has taken on them. He drinks too much. He’s horny and she plays hard to get but they do head off to the bedroom for some long overdue lovemaking, according to him.
When they do emerge from the bedroom all secrets are exposed; she gets a tape recording of his lovemaking on his last trip. She’s having his baby but doesn’t want it. He has her dirty little secrets all tied up in ribbons threatening to expose her if she aborts the baby. That’s a bombshell, but there is more to follow in this one act 90- minute play that director Lou Bellamy brings to the fore with heartfelt emotional verve. This is excellently acted by the two experienced actors of color.
Olivia and Charles no doubt felt the impact of slavery and inequality long before the volunteers ventured out to the streets. They were there to protest! But what it has devolved into in this present day atmosphere where Blacks are the targets of police brutality and the toll it has taken on so many is almost an insult to those who risked their lives for the cause. At the time one might never have imagined that in this year there still would be the fight for equal rights.
We see the daily horrors on the news today. Those hateful acts almost mirror the brutality of days before the Civil Rights Movement. The family drama that’s acted out in Love’s play builds to a powerful and unexpected conclusion. Both actors give the audience a true sense of how close we all are to crumbling under that pressure.
Jeffery Elias Teeter’s projections become a third character in this production. The sky sometimes is filled with smoke from blasts of bombs going off either in Olivia’s head or off in some distant location. In the end the fireflies overwhelm with their abundance. It’s simply breathtaking.
Vicki Smith’s set is a realistic and working kitchen where meals are prepared, but go uneaten. Lighting designer Don Darnutzer enhances Teeter’s projections as Scott W. Edwards’ sound design rocks the theatre. David Kay Mickelsen designed the period clothes.
The world premiere of Fireflies was presented by The Atlantic Theatre Company in 2018. Hats off to South Coast Rep. for bringing it to Orange County. It needs to be seen.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through Jan. 26th
Organization: South Coast Repertory Theatre
Phone: 714-708-5555
Production Type: Drama
Where: 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, at Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts.
Ticket Prices: Start at $24.00
Web: scr.org
Venue: Julianne Argyros Stage
Photo Credit: Jordan Kubat
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Carol Davis is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com