Review - Proof of Love

You've already read, many times by now, how much I love Chisa Hutchinson, the writer and the person.  I'm never going to let one of her productions pass me by and I probably would be constitutionally unable to dislike it.  So, you can just take my praise for her new piece, Proof of Love, with a grain of salt, I guess.  Though I think my positive opinion is absolutely right.

Proof of Love is the first physical production from Audible's new Emerging Playwrights Commission.  From the Audible website:  "This fund enables the creation of original plays driven by language and voice, keeping with Audible’s commitment to elevating listening experiences through performance and vocal storytelling. In addition to financial support, Audible will provide the playwrights creative and logistical resources that suit the needs of each artist. The fund is also intended to support the audio production of each commission and, in some instances, a live stage component."  I've purchased one of the audio plays from this new commission, Evil Eye by Madhuri Shekar, but I haven't listened to it yet (I'm looking forward to it - I saw a reading of one of Madhuri's plays a couple of years ago and greatly enjoyed it).  I'm pretty sure Chisa's play is the first production that will then be recorded into an audio version.

You enter the Minetta Lane Theatre space and you see a large private hospital room, so already I know that the character we'll be meeting (these Audible plays are to have one or two characters) is well-off.  Constance (played by the amazing Brenda Pressley) comes in, a smartly-dressed African-American woman of a certain age.  She looks around the room - you can tell she's been here awhile and has built up feelings that need to come out.  She then speaks to someone who is behind curtains off to the side of the stage, in an hour-long monologue.  

photo credit: Joan Marcus

Throughout the monologue, we learn that the person behind the bed curtain is Constance's husband, Maurice, who was in a car accident five days ago and is not expected to survive.  You can hear the beeping of the machines and the whir of the breathing tube keeping him alive throughout the play, which adds realism to the situation.  Constance talks about learning of her husband's accident and of hearing a strange nugget of information when the police tell her of his accident.  That nugget of information, along with strange texts on her husband's phone (which the hospital presents to her in a plastic bag with his other belongings), leads to a mystery that unfolds as the monologue unfolds.  We gradually understand that Maurice has been having an affair for the past eight years and that Constance only learned about it from the phone and from the off-handed comment by the police officer about where the car accident occurred.  Since she discovered it, she's been obsessed with finding out everything she can.

Chisa beautifully constructs the mystery and learning things as Constance reveals them is part of the play's pleasures.  We hear Constance try to work through the how and why of her husband's affair, she relates how they met and how she thinks their lives together have turned out.  We feel her surprise and shame and disdain.  We learn about her background as an educated, upper class African-American, and her husband's background as a more working class African-American.  We learn about the class conflicts even within the African-American community and we're witness to the internal jealousies, yet sense of kinship, amongst women.  Ideas of status, privilege, surface judgement, and insecurity are explored - I was particularly fascinated by one of Constance's early lines that she reports was uttered to her daughter: 'there's more than one way to be black.'  Clearly, this is something that is completely unknown to me and I wanted to hear more.  But Constance's great need to know she's loved seems universal.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

I really loved how this story unfolded and I loved getting to know Constance, who could come off as elitist and snobbish (which she is), but she's also funny and open and willing to look at herself clearly.  The way she works through her feelings about her husband's mistress and how she's willing to accept her share of the blame in what might be lacking in her marriage is also so appealing and realistic.  When she tries to admit to herself that maybe she wouldn't have even given her husband a second glance had his diction been poor, we feel her self-disgust.  As always, Chisa has written her characters (even the ones we don't see) with such empathy and appeal, that you can see everyone's flaws and everyone's good qualities with clear-eyes.  I was completely invested in this story and was taken aback by the ending - ambiguous, but utterly earned and true.

I thought Proof of Love was wonderful, with real belly laughs (hearing Constance drily relate how she finally broke through her husband's locked cell phone was a riot) and real feeling (Constance's sadness over the rift with her daughter, and her feelings of loss when thinking about her husband's mistress are beautifully drawn).  I could've listened to Brenda Pressley speak Chisa's dialogue for another hour at least.  That means I think you should go see it.  Obviously.  Random side note:  when I looked at a website that gathers other reviews of the play, I found it fascinating that only white male reviewers published reviews.  Hm.  Very intriguing.  And that's all I'll say about that.  

I applaud Audible for putting their money behind a diverse group of playwrights and I look forward to seeing (and listening to) more plays about worlds I'd like to explore.  To me, Proof of Love was a great start.