Playwright: Eugene Lee At: Writers Theatre, 325 E. Tudor Ct., Glencoe IL Tickets: 847-242-6000 or WritersTheatre.org; $35-$80. Runs through: Jan. 22, 2017
Fine performances have the ability to keep you delighted for a short time, and more nuanced performances may inspire you to alter your thinking.
But truly astounding theater, like Writers Theatre's East Texas Hot Links, does something remarkable: It forces you to reassess who you are. When you see Eugene Lee's deceptively small masterpiece, whether you realize it or not, your sensibilities are being scrutinized. The artistic team is willing you to see beyond their crew of Black Texans in a rural watering hole in 1955, and discover the corruption that lives closer than they know, and still plagues us over 60 years later.
In East Texas Hot Links, oddly, there are no more hot links. Charlesetta ( Tyla Abercrumbie ) has taken up her father's helm at the family's roadside stop, and pared down the menu to beer and pickled pigs feet. The old spirit of extending a hand to the hungry has dried up, except maybe for Columbus ( Alfred H. Wilson ), a forgiving landlord and Adolph ( Willie B. ), spouting endless philosophy.
To the rest, this hilltop sanctuary is a waypoint on their journey. Delmus ( Luce Metrius ) is young and impatient to make a success of himself, and XL ( Namir Smallwood ), has taken uncharacteristically selfless action to help him find employment. Roy ( Kelvin Roston, Jr. ) can't stop asking Charlsetta for a little affection, and like a pair of tarot cards, Boochie ( A.C. Smith ) brings knowledge of the future and Buckshot ( Antoine Pierre Whitfield ) administers rewards on some and punishment on others.
Rumors of missing Black men grow to flood the sacred hideaway, but to describe how would take away from the thrill of this theater experience. Just go, and know that this story is important. Everything you see onstage has been somebody's devastating reality.
So much credit is due to set designer Jack Magaw for the gorgeously po-dunk environment, and director Ron OJ Parson and the incredible acting ensemble that bring this production to life. Author Eugene Lee has an uncanny knowledge of how audiences will align to these characters, and it is reveletory when you realize that Lee, Parson and ensemble members have foreseen and subverted your expectations.
When Abercrumbie and Roston ratchet up Charlesetta and Roy's sexually tense arguments, you don't expect the come-ons might be the only thing to bring you solace when their world is rocked. When Metrius puffs up his chest as Delmus, annoying his elders with promises to leave them in the dust, you don't anticipate that you might rally to him when he becomes a target of violence. You might feel kinship, like I did, with Smallwood as XL, the odd man out, who can't seem to control his provoking nature. And you might regret that impulse when you see exactly what XL is capable of. The heart of East Texas Hot Links lies with the unassuming Wilson as Columbus; in a way, the story centers on how far his forgiving nature will stretch before it snaps.
There is something truly affecting to be shown that you don't exist apart from an active brutality that still thrives in the open. Hate is easy to compartmentalize when acts of violence and racism are distant blips on a social landscape far from you. But East Texas Hot Links brings the blood of Black men and women close enough to stain your dress shoes, and dares you to look away.