Photo by Paul Ruffolo
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre - Stew
Olivia Dawson and Malaina Moore in Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's Stew
In the Tucker family kitchen, it seems like any other household waking up on a Saturday morning: the matriarch, Mama, is cleaning up from the day before, getting ready to make her big pot of stew for the Sunday church dinner. But in Zora Howard’s excellent play, Stew, there are familial tensions simmering underneath, just waiting to boil over. And boil over they do in this top-notch production staged by Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.
While the dish of the title takes center stage, it’s simply an allusion—and catalyst—for the four female relatives dealing with heartbreak, loss, betrayal, pregnancy. And while the kitchen remains sanctuary for Mama, we are reminded of the dangers of the outside world slowly encroaching as Howard deftly adds, then slowly peels, back the layers within her well-written storytelling.
“What you’re waiting on is layers. Each layer to settle down and the next one to stack on top of the one before it,” explains Mama (Olivia Dawson) as she begins making the stew for the most important day of the year—for her. She’s helped by her daughters, 17-year-old Nelly (Sola Thompson), thirtyish Lillian (Krystal Drake) and Lillian’s daughter Lil’ Mama (Malaina Moore). Lillian’s son, Junior remains talked about but unseen, like the rest of the men in Stew. It’s a woman’s world in the kitchen. But the male presence is felt but invisible throughout.
The key ingredients in Stew that make it so riveting to watch is its realistic dialogue and high caliber acting, all under the astute direction of Malkia Stampley. The four talk around and over one another, yelling and shouting and trying to be heard and understood. It’s funny and frustrating and oh so realistic. And all three generations have their stake in acting onstage. Now it’s Lil’ Mama’s chance to audition for the role of the queen in Shakespeare’s Richard III. It’s one of the most poignant and telling scenes in Stew, as the three older women battle over the best interpretation of the role. It’s the play-within-the-play that allows them to pour out their pent-up anger and disappointments, literally spilling out onto the kitchen floor—and beyond.
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All four actors simply excel in their roles: Dawson is as real as it gets with Mama and her three-dimensional portrayal of a woman who’s slowly becoming more and more confused is completely engrossing. As Lillian, Drake deftly teeters between child-woman and adult child, self-assured one moment, falling apart in the next. Thompson rounds out the child-adult model, acting grown up but scared inside when reality intrudes. And Malaina Moore is pitch-perfect (literally) as the tweenager who brings a groundedness to Stew with her childlike yet insightful questioning.
And when it’s time to finally take the stew to church, Stew serves up yet another stark reminder: just when we think the “dish is done,” life adds its own surprises to the “recipe.”
Stew runs through Nov.7 in the Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee. For tickets, call the Box Office at: 414-291-7800, or visit: milwaukeechambertheatre.org/
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Photo by Paul Ruffolo
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre - Stew
Krystal Drake, Olivia Dawson, Sola Thompson and Malaina Moore in Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's Stew
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Photo by Paul Ruffolo
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre - Stew
Malaina Moore, Krystal Drake, Sola Thompson and Olivia Dawson in Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's Stew
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Photo by Paul Ruffolo
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre - Stew
Malaina Moore and Sola Thompson in Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's Stew
