![[CREDIT: Mark Turek] From left, Horne and West in Trinity Repertory Company’s season closer, “Blues for an Alabama Sky.”](https://e8dgfhu6pow.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Trinity-Rep-Blues-for-an-Alabama-Sky.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
From left, Horne and West in Trinity Repertory Firm’s season nearer, “Blues for an Alabama Sky.”
Warning: this evaluate comprises spoilers about key plot developments.
PROVIDENCE, RI —Trinity Repertory Company’s season nearer, “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” is an exceptionally well-mounted manufacturing. The performances are all extremely polished, the set design and interval costumes are attractive, and the dialogue is usually witty and perceptive.
The story follows a gaggle of buddies in Harlem within the Nineteen Thirties. The Nice Despair has taken a toll on everybody, together with Angel (Cloteal L. Horne), a blues singer who has misplaced her job, her lover, and her house.
Luckily, Angel has a companion in Man (Taavon Gamble), an brazenly homosexual man and a clothier. Man lets Angel keep in his house whereas she appears for a brand new singing job.
Man’s neighbor Delia (Meagan Dilworth), a vibrant and good-natured younger lady, needs to start out a household planning clinic with the help of Sam (Dereks Thomas), a pleasant physician with little curiosity in a romance.
Life turns into difficult for Angel when Leland (Quinn West), a debonair newcomer from the South, involves city. Angel turns into infatuated with him and sees Leland as her ticket out of a lifetime of distress.
Leland is a devoutly spiritual man with a tragedy in his previous: his spouse died throughout childbirth, alongside together with his child son.
Director Jackie Davis, who co-starred in final 12 months’s “Fences,” immerses the characters in a world of seduction, hazard, and finally, heartbreak.
Horne is mesmerizing as Angel, a disillusioned dreamer so burned by life that she doesn’t care about anybody else’s needs. Horne appears nice, sings nice, and successfully conveys Angel’s insecurity, desperation and worry of being left to develop outdated alone.
Gamble (“The Inheritance”) shows a bottomless pit of allure and humor. Man is the very best good friend all of us want we may have. He’s heat, loyal, and gained’t let anybody beat him down. His relationship with Angel has an underlying sexual rigidity simply beneath the floor. She’s interested in him however is aware of he may by no means reciprocate her emotions.
Dilworth, a newcomer to Trinity Rep., is tremendously sympathetic and interesting as Delia. Her interactions with Thomas are candy and horny.
African-American Playwright Pearl Cleage has included many provocative topics in her writing: contraception, homophobia, misogyny, racism, and the dearth of job alternatives for ladies, notably black girls.
Sadly, the primary act, which lasts far too lengthy at 90 minutes, is simply too ponderous. All of the characters are launched and given the prospect to share their desires however there’s a notable lack of plot development. Issues decide up within the play’s second act. Angel turns into pregnant with Leland’s youngster. He asks her to marry him. She says sure to his proposal. There’s only one small downside: Angel doesn’t love Leland and doesn’t desire a youngster.
Angel later tells Leland she suffered a miscarriage. When he comforts her by saying they’ll all the time have extra kids, Angel admits she had an abortion. This enrages Leland, who commits a surprising act of violence.
The closing moments of “Blues for an Alabama Sky” don’t resolve the story in a satisfying approach. Angel’s habits is contemptible, notably the cavalier angle she takes when sharing the reality with Leland. Her lack of any kind of regret for her actions is just vile, particularly contemplating the harm she has precipitated.
Delia has extra cause to be indignant than anybody else but the script cheats her – and the viewers – out of a confrontation with Angel. The place’s the expression of her grief, her sense of betrayal? We by no means see it.
And that’s a disgrace, as a result of there’s a lot that’s proper about this play. The set-up is there for a strong drama, however the writing fails the characters in the long run.
Blues for an Alabama Sky runs by means of June 29. Trinity Repertory Firm. 201 Washington St., Windfall, RI. Run time is 3 hours with one intermission. For tickets, name 401-351-4242 or go to www.trinityrep.com.
