FOR COLORED GIRLS..by Ntozake Shange at Public

The full title of this revival by poet & playwright Ntozake Shange (b Amer. 1948-2016) is "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf".  The play was first performed off-Broadway in 1975 where it earned and Obie and quickly moved to Broadway.  The play is a choreopoem; a pastiche of music, drama, poetry, storytelling and music.  The exceptional cast of women are only referred to by the varying chromatic colors dress.  The outfits all have a motif of a black woman's face. The immersive staging is performed in the round with some seatings on stage.  The Ladies move through the aisles, encouraging participation and making contact with those wishing to dance & move their hands. The Ladies enter the stage from the aisles and commence dancing in an exuberant free for all that resembles a tribal Macarena accentuated with tap mired in jazz.  The 7 Ladies tell us of their lives of hardships, abuse, longings and desperation with raw honesty in an elegiac style.  The Ladies speak in a profoundly poetic style that emphasizes their sufferings, defiances, sorrows & joys.  Music and dance flows continually uplifting and sustaining the women.  The rainbow of colored women adhere together.  The Ladies recognize their combined strengths and experiences creates something much more powerful than themselves.  The rainbow of colors epitomizes a combined energy; a beacon of beauty & sustenance.  The Lady in Blue (Sasha Allen) singing voice was astonishing and the Lady in Brown (Celia Chevalier) was adept at orchestrating the interwoven storytelling.  The play paints a dire portrait of black-men.  But, it's more complicated and magical than a plight of woes. "For Colored Girls" is a theatrical experience that blends poetry that lingers in the air, music & dance that blend the body and spirit.  The Lady in Red's requiem scorches one's soul.  The Ladies tell us "I want for you to love and I don't want to dance with ghosts.  I am not impervious to pain or sensual pleasures."  Shange's masterful play is audacious and alive.