Photo Credit: Paul Ruffolo
First Stage covers a tremendous amount of thematic ground with its production of Jacqueline Woodson’s drama Locomotion. The story of a foster kid in Brooklyn learning the power of poetry is a tale of art, life, struggle, expression, loss and so much more. It all springs vividly to life for 75 minutes without intermission. Director Aaron Todd Douglas keeps all of the themes together with a fluidly sense of emotional complexity.
Young performers from First Stage Theatre Academy play Lonnie and Lili Motion—foster siblings who find themselves in different homes after the loss of their parents. Lonnie is trying to make sense of his own past with the aid of his writing teacher Miss Marcus. She challenges him to embrace the written language in order to express himself. Nadja Simmonds does a brilliant job of bringing the vibrant energy to the roles of both Miss Marcus in the present and Lonnie’s mother in flashbacks. Ronnel Taylor sharply channels earthbound wisdom as Lonnie’s late father in Lonnie’s memories. There are some very deep moments between father and son where a love of the language is passed-on. That love of language is fully embraced with the aid of Miss Marcus.
The drama rests on a beautiful set by Martin McClendon which balances an exaggerated sense of forced perspective with a warmly domestic Brooklyn apartment complete with fire escape to a roof looking out over a distant New York skyline beyond the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s an appealingly simple space to embrace the complexities of life fed through the lens of a young man who is just beginning to understand the world through the language of poetry.
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Through Feb. 24 at Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. For tickets, call 414-267-2961 or visit firststage.org.
