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| Seret Scott, Jessie Saunders. |
MY SISTER, MY SISTER [Drama/Alcoholism/Business/Family/Period/Race/Religion/Sex/Southern] A: Ray Aranha; D: Paul Weidner; S: Lawrence King; C: Kathleen Ankers; L: Larry Crimmins; P: Jay J. Cohen, Myra L. Burns, and Chesmark Productions; T: Little Theatre; 4/11/74-8/11/74 (119)
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| David Downing, Barbara Montgomery. |
A problematic, multilayered blend of poetic fantasy and
realism, that John Simon and Martin Gottfried compared, unfavorably, to the
work of Tennessee Williams. It takes place among the members of a black family
in a Southern town during the 1950s.
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| Seret Scott, Barbara Montgomery. |
The central figure is Sue Belle (Seret Scott). The play
pictures her, through often dizzying time shifts backward and forward, as she
grows up to become a psychologically and sexually confused young woman. As the
play jumps freely through time, a number of characters appear: Sue Belle’s irresponsible, drunken father
(David Downing), her Bible-toting mother (Barbara Montgomery), her promiscuous
elder sister (Jessie Saunders), the lover (Downing again) who has gotten her
pregnant, and whom she now associates with her incestuous father (thus the
casting). Also introduced are various symbolic “spectres” of her past,
and, in one scene, Jesus Christ (Lowell Copeland), played by a white actor.
Aranha’s attempts to explore Sue Belle’s perplexed psyche
through rapid cutting from one period of her life to another bewildered many critics. A few were often unable to tell “whether we are watching a precocious
child or a retarded young woman,” in Simon’s words. The action occasionally
seemed incomprehensible and appeared to Richard Watts “not only unclear but
steadily foolish and tedious.” Douglas Watt reported that it became “a bore.” Walter Kerr was baffled, but saw promise in the writing. Clive Barnes, however, supported the play as “well-written and compassionate,” despite the “occasionally
disconcerting” time shifts. And, most positively, Edith Oliver dubbed the work “remarkable,”
claiming that “Mr. Aranha writes with the greatest sympathy, imagination, and
humor.”
The play, originally staged at the Hartford Stage Company in
Connecticut, played Off Off-Broadway before emerging in this Broadway version
by the same director. The performances, especially that of Scott, were
considered of top quality. Aranha won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New
Playwright, and Scott walked off with a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding
Performance.
My Sister, My Sister marked
the reopening of the Little Theatre for
legitimate theatre after some years as a TV studio. In 1983, the Little Theatre became the Helen Hayes Theatre after the earlier theatre of that name, on W. 48th Street, was demolished.