Though Geffen Playhouse’s new artistic director Tarell Alvin McCraney wrote “The Brothers Size” 20 years ago, the play resonates just as powerfully today, if not more so, given our increasing awareness of biased legal structures that continue to oppress Black men.
Continuing at the Geffen Playhouse’s intimate Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater through Sept. 8 – and masterfully orchestrated by award-winning British director Bijan Sheibani – “The Brothers Size” seamlessly merges West African Yoruba myth with the gritty reality of a post-incarcerated young man caught between his strict and upright older brother and the soft allure of a former prison-mate with unclear intentions.
Oshoosi Size (Alani iLongwe) loves music, women and lounging in bed rather than waking before dawn to work with his older brother Ogun (Sheaun McKinney) in his car-repair shop. Oshi, as his brother calls him, also doesn’t want to be reminded of his time served in prison, reacting sharply whenever Ogun mentions it, which is often.
For his part, Ogun is clearly protective of his younger brother, wanting him to create a life that precludes ending up behind bars again. However, both must contend with the elusive Elegba (Malcolm Mays, understudied by Galen J. Williams), who comes and goes “like the moon” to quietly seduce Oshi away from Ogun and not only be his friend but his brother, including giving him a car when Ogun won’t.
A somewhat innocent soul, Oshi is visibly confused by the push and pull he feels between the regulated life Ogun wants to instill in him and the freer and looser life Elegba represents. He is also viscerally tortured by the prospect of returning to jail—an experience he outwardly brushes off but which clearly had a profound effect on him.
It doesn’t help that local law enforcement seems to call Oshi out simply for being a formerly incarcerated young Black man while standing, walking or sitting in a car, as he recounts to Ogun with a humor that covers up shame and anger.
Strong yet lithe, iLongwe fluidly embodies Oshi's happy-go-lucky demeanor and underlying feelings of pain and longing he may not be able to express. And McKinney contrasts him well as the muscly and stalwart Ogun, who gazes at his younger brother with both parental sternness and palpable warmth.
The two move within a circle of white powder Oshi has drawn on the round stage that becomes their world, where all is enacted without props, and over which the elusive Elegba steps as he comes and goes. Lighting (by Adam Honoré) illuminates the circle and spills over into the audience so we see each other and the characters see us.
Subtle music adds to the charged atmosphere, performed by composer Stan Mathabane on various instruments, including tenor sax and flutes, but also djembe, dununba and sangban African drums.
And choreography by Juel D. Lane has the men move in pulsing, coordinated motion, reflecting their masculine strength, humanity and deep interconnection. A late scene of the brothers joyously dancing to Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” encapsulates their bond—before a final climactic scene of reality intrudes.
Above all, the rhythm of McCraney’s language is the heartbeat that sustains the story, the characters not only speaking dialogue but their own action and stage direction as well – “Waking from his dream” or “Elegba enters” – creating a feeling of immediacy and intimacy.
Their workmanlike cotton shirts, blue Dickies, bandanas and Converse sneakers (costuming by Dede Ayite) suggest the men are here and now while also in the Louisiana bayou’s “distant present” setting—timelessly familiar yet a world apart.
“The Brothers Size” is ultimately the mesmerizing story of two very different brothers, each learning to make space for the other in a world that threatens to crowd in on their love, despite – or perhaps because of – their protective circle.
“The Brothers Size” continues at Geffen Playhouse’s Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles, through Sept. 8, with shows Wednesday through Saturday and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by calling the box office at (310) 208-2028 or visiting GeffenPlayhouse.org. Run time is 90 minutes with no intermission.
Comments