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| Todd Davis, Michelle Shay, Mary Alice. |
IN THE DEEPEST PART
OF SLEEP [Drama/Family/Marriage/Mental Illness/Race/Sex] A: Charles Fuller;
D: Israel Hicks; S/C: Mary Mease Warren; L: Susan Chapman; P: Negro Ensemble
Company; T: St. Mark’s Playhouse (OB); 6/4/74-6/30/74 (32)
Note: this and several surrounding entries are slightly out of alphabetical order.
Note: this and several surrounding entries are slightly out of alphabetical order.
A promising early play by Black writer Charles Fuller, who
won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for his A
Soldier’s Play. This four-character work tells of a Black family living in
Philadelphia in the mid-1950s. The mentally unstable, frequently hysterical
mother, Maybelle (Mary Alice), recently has come home from two years in an
institution to her 17-year-old son, Reuben (Todd Davis), and second husband,
Ashe (Charles Weldon). She keeps everyone on edge with her demands, including
the attractive nurse, Lyla (Michele Shay), who looks after her.
Ashe refuses to have sex with his irritating wife, but he is
tempted by the nurse, who becomes his mistress and gets pregnant by him. The
adolescent son is also aroused by the nurse. With this setup, much of the play
is occupied with the working out of Reuben's seduction of Lyla and his resulting
feelings when she capitulates.
Edith Oliver described In
the Deepest Part of Sleep as a successful evocation of atmosphere: “an
atmosphere of sexual tension, stifling and ominous, of a household under
stress.” John Simon saw it as an insightful look at a boy’s coming of age, but
observed that “the play desperately needs a third act” to let the audience know
what befalls the characters in consequence of their behavior. Mel Gussow, on
the other hand, found only “several moments” of quality writing, judging that
the rest “asks for too much indulgence” of its audience. He believed that
Israel Hicks had misdirected in failing to emphasize its naturalistic style.
Others, though, said the play was expertly staged and exceptionally well-acted,
with particular praise for Michelle Shay.