Photo by Michael Brosilow
Next Act Theatre 'Splash Hatch'
Jada Jackson and Joseph Brown Jr. in Next Act Theatre's 'Splash Hatch on the E Going Down'
Thyme is waiting. There’s so much on the other side of the present that she’s looking forward to, but she’s going to have to wait as the haze of pollution and the fog of uncertainty continue to thicken in Harlem. She’s pregnant. She’s married. She’s nearing graduation. Everything seems to be lining-up for her. She’s about to find out just how tenuous everything is in Splash Hatch on the E Going Down. Next Act Theatre opens its season with a production of the contemporary drama with a clever sense of nuance weaving through a very intricately written script.
Jada Jackson articulates a deep and complex psych-emotional life in the role of Thyme. Playwright Kia Corthron renders a profound amount of intellectual detail into Thyme’s words onstage. The young mother-to-be is deeply concerned with environmental racism that clings to the periphery of her world until her husband falls ill after working in demolitions. Joseph Brown Jr. brings a smartly frustrated passion to the stage as Thyme’s husband Erry. Thyme’s husband deals with deep questions of the future as he gets paid to tear down architectural artifacts of the past.
Photo by Michael Brosilow
Next Act Theatre 'Splash Hatch'
Jada Jackson and James Carrington in Next Act Theatre’s 'Splash Hatch on the E Going Down'
Thyme’s journey through pregnancy causes conflict with a few of the other people in her life. Malaina Moore is charismatic as Thyme’s friend Shaneequa who is also pregnant. Personalities clash with interpersonal frustration between Thym and her mother as well. There’s a steady wisdom about Kristin E. Ellis in the role of Thyme’s mother. James Carrington rounds-out the cast as Thyme’s father, a trucker who is also something of a dreamer. Carrington plays a clever dichotomy as a working-class guy who is both pragmatic and restless.
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Next Act Theatre’s production of Splash Hatch on the E Going Down runs through Oct. 15, at 255 S. Water St. For ticket reservations and more, visit nextact.org.
