Hartford Stage

SHEILA'S DAY

A TRIUMPHANT MUSICAL CELEBRATION

JULY 22 - AUGUST 15, 2010

Hartford Stage Box Office

860-527-5151

Reviewed by Donna Bailey-Thompson

The title has a back story. Sheila is the name South African white employers called their black domestic help because the ladies claimed they couldn’t remember the women’s given names. Sheila’s Day refers to the domestic worker’s day off. Just as soon as you learn the colors of the casts’ identical costumes, the reason for the choices will be obvious: black and blue.

While American blacks were protesting Jim Crow laws (e.g., drinking fountains and rest rooms were accessible according to skin color), blacks in South Africa were constricted by Apartheid laws (means “apartness” in Afrikaans) which diminished them to second-class citizens. Or less. The domestics in Soweto Township, Johannesburg and thousands of miles away in Perry County, Alabama, were Sheila sisters. They didn’t know it – then.

During a 1989 workshop at the honored Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ, artists-in-residence Duma Ndlovu and Mbongeni Ngema began creating Sheila’s Day which premiered in 1995. Since then, it has crisscrossed the globe, earning praise and appreciation from rapt audiences who after the final scene, often rise as one to their feet. This was true at the Wednesday performance (July 28, 2010).

Through the magic of imagination that blurs distance and time, South African Sheilas and American Sheilas hold weekly group support meetings on Thursdays, their common day off. They empower themselves through music – singing, dancing, chanting – and by sharing stories of what’s happening to foster an end to race-based restrictions. Highlights of the courageous process are printed in the program, beginning with 1953 through 1972.

Ten multi-talented women carry the show, always on stage throughout the approximately 90 minutes (no intermission). Their glorious voices progressively raise the vibrations within the theater. Their frustration, anger, pain, despair, and fortitude – and moments of wry humor – are backed by the power of their conviction. Their body language speaks volumes.

Directed by Ricardo Khan, the pace is good and the choreography is outstanding, especially the dozens of times the company assumes a pause -- from short to long -- and every new grouping is artistic and unique.

And Hartford Stage's 2010 - 2011 season is launched, albeit at its summer location -- the Kingswood-Oxford School -- until HS's multiple renovations are complete and ready for Shakespeare's Anthony & Cleopatra ,

October 7 - November 7, 2010.