Photo Credit: Paul Ruffolo
In Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of The Brothers Size, the bonds that bind us as family can free us but also imprison us. It can be as simple as perspective or as difficult as the need to connect and remain unified.
For the brothers Size—older, responsible Ogun and his younger, aimless brother, Oshoosi—their brotherly ties slowly tighten around each other, changing one another’s lives. This taut, powerful production grips the audience from start to finish, conjuring a savage poetry that playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney has constructed that remains in memory long after the lights come up.
And under the no-holds-barred direction and expressive-primitive movement choreography by Marti Gobel, The Brothers Size is a stark parable for the times we live in, regardless of the “progress” we think we’ve made—as family, as a society.
Oshoosi has been out of prison a short time trying to make his way—and make sense—of the world. Ogun wants him to work, be responsible, productive. But fellow prison inmate, Elegba, is that nagging “demon” whispering in his ear, drawing him back into the world Oshoosi knows all too well.
The four-member cast is superb: Travis A. Knight fills the stage with his commanding presence as Ogun desperate to help his brother, all the more desperate watching him slip away. Knight conveys every detailed nuance, verbal and non verbal, of a man in great inner turmoil, trapped by his own responsibility and need to connect to his last remaining family member.
Andrew Muwonge is a perfect balance of naive boy and grown man, keeping us guessing as to what he’s really thinking. And as the suave, smooth Elegba, Marques Causey is fascinating to watch, a streetwise “serpent” in a gritty Garden of Eden. Jahmés Tony Finlayson is The Egungun, mystical musician and storyteller who casts a spell on this haunting performance using his own “junkyard” of instruments that add to the underlying tension.
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As Elegba foretells early on the production, “the road is rough. Yeah,” repeating the phrase over and over. For The Brothers Size, that road remains the same as it ever was.
Through March 18 at Broadway Theatre Center Studio Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets call 414-291-7800 or visit milwaukeechambertheatre.com.
