In The Red and Brown Water,
the main character, Oya, faces some of the toughest challenges of her life. At
the beginning of this coming-of-age tale, the audience is shown that Oya is the
fastest track runner in her hometown, the Projects in the Bayou of Louisiana.
In fact she’s so good at track, that she receives an offer from “State,” a
college where she could be a member of the track team. Oya is forced to decline
the offer so that she could stay and look after Mama Moja, her mom who is very
sick. It is obvious to the audience that one of Oya’s friends, Ogun has a crush
on her. He stutters while trying to talk to her, and is treated badly by
Shango, a smooth talker whose main goal is to get with Oya. Mama Moja passes
away, and Oya discovers that it is too late for her to run track for State. She
falls for Shango, who does not truly care about her and sleeps around with
other women. Shango leaves for the army and Oya is left with Ogun, but that’s
not what Oya’s heart wants.
I feel that
Oya’s main problem is struggling with the decisions that she has made. First,
she turned down an offer to go to college, possibly her only way out of the
projects. Then she fell for a man who didn’t truly love her. Now she’s left
with nothing. In the end, Oya did not achieve what she set out to achieve.
I was most
compelled by the dancing and choreography of the performers. I found it
fascinating that they walked through the aisles during the play. The sounds and
moves were almost otherworldly, for example when Elegba explained his dream to
Mama Moja. The fact that almost the whole cast was involved in these dancing
scenes made them even better.
The cast
and crew did an excellent job, and I was very impressed by the performances.
However, the play itself was a bit difficult to follow at times. One specific
part of the play that made very little sense to me was towards the end when Oya
cut off her ear. I don’t understand why she would do something like that.
Personally, I like when a movie or story makes you look for hidden meanings and
read between the lines. I’m sure everyone does not feel the same way though, so
if you are the kind of person that likes a story to be very simple and
forthright, maybe In the Red and Brown Water is not the play for you.
But if you are like me, this would be a very enjoyable performance for you to
see.
This was my
first time seeing a live theatre performance. I was completely shocked at how
much I enjoyed it. When I thought of going to see a play, I thought of the
typical “high school play” episode of any TV show that I had watched as a
child. I was impressed at how complex the characters in the play were and how
deep the plot actually went. That being said, I would not think twice about
making another trip to the theatre here at Penn State.
