Pegasus Theatre first performed Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery in 2017. Playwright Shay Yougblood's story of Black women raising one of their own in 1960s Georgia has been remounted by Pegasus at Chicago Dramatists. The luminous Felisha McNeal again leads the cast as Big Mama in a tight-knit group of women. They each play a big part in raising Big Mama's grandchild, called Daughter. Caitlin Dobbins deftly switches between the 12-year-old Daughter and a grown woman returned to bury the last of her loving "mamas".
The women in Big Mama's circle help raise Daughter. They unite earnestly when she gets her "first blood" and is ready to learn the mysteries of being a woman. The story is of Daughter being prepared and taken to the river as an initiation. The aura of mystery that permeates the South is rooted in African traditions and the connection to the earth. The difference between good and evil or spiritual and mortal is not so finely delineated with people so closely connected to the earth. In Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, the characters have endured the pain of a hard life and do not make any attempts to shield Daughter from it.
Daughter's mother left her in Big Mama's care and mysteriously disappeared into New York City. Dobbins inhabits the role of Daughter with innocence and sharp wit. The women in Big Mama's group share the trials of Black women in the South. They work as domestics and make money under the table doing hair and selling bootleg whiskey. Stacie Doublin plays the snuff-dipping Corrine, who also presses hair in a beauty shop near her kitchen. Doublin is touching and funny as the dour domestic who claims to have had professional training in housekeeping at the behest of her white employer. Every Black woman in the audience knowingly laughed when Corrine told Daughter to hold her ear. Youngblood's dialogue is filled with olfactory and tactile memories of Sulfur 8 hair pomade, dipping snuff, and sizzling hot combs.
Sharyon Culberson plays the dual role of the Hoodoo roots worker and local lesbian Aunt Tom who takes Daughter fishing with corn and Vienna sausage bait. Youngblood wrote a full complement of characters, much like in real life. Big Mama's sister, Aunt Mae, is played by debrah k. neal. Aunt Mae is the local bootlegger who enjoys being in the company of other women's husbands and drinking her product with the customers. She would be considered a fallen woman, but is still in the sisterhood. When Aunt Mae falls ill with a tumor, Lamama (Africa Pace Brown) is a part of the healing circle despite her husband's philandering with the bootlegger.
Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery is a well-rounded story about the lives of Southern Black women. It is the story of all women who have to make a way for themselves and their daughters, both those born to them and those given to them. Under Ilesa Duncan's direction, the cast had great chemistry and excellent pacing. Duncan also directed the 2017 staging of Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery for Pegasus Theatre Chicago. The cast sings excellently, with outstanding solos from Africa Pace Brown and Sharyon Culberson. The spirituals and prayer session resonated with the audience, who clapped along and vibed with the emotional gravitas of the story.
Shawn Wallace is music director with choreography by Tanji Harper.
I highly recommend seeing Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, now playing through June 15 at the Russ Tutterow Theatre at Chicago Dramatists, 798 N Aberdeen. Running time is 50 minutes. Tickets and more information are available here.
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