TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS at The Old Globe
In thisage of social media when a person can be flooded with a million chatteringvoices, it seems that it is a rare commodity to feel truly heard. For someone to connect and listen is a potentthing. Which is what makes TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS, now playing at The Old Globethrough March 17th, so powerful; it is a play all about empathy,being heard, and feeling that connection.
Granted, that connection comes via the onlineadvice column “Dear Sugar”, and the letter writers never actually meet Sugar(Opal Alladin). Nevertheless, she is able to connect and help just by beingthere for them and responding.
Sugaris a professional writer and mother of two who takes the job as an unpaidadvice columnist in a snap decision. As she wanders her living room, cleaningup and packing lunches for her kids, she answers the letters that comingflooding into her inbox. From a guy who gets seasick that’s about to go sailingwith his boss who hates him, to a kid who wants to make friends at a new schoolSugar slowly works her way into her new gig.
It’swhen a writer asking about love who signs off as “Confused” that Sugar is ableto really settle into this role and help by listening and responding. Shedoesn’t necessarily answer with actionable steps to solve the problem,but by responding with a warm and personal connection.
Theensemble - Keith Powell, Avi Roque, and Dorcas Sowunmi – play all of the othercharacters in the show. They move fluidly from funny, to serious, baringtheir innermost emotions and issues to someone who will listen. The strength ofthis play comes from the open and genuine performances from everyone on stage. There is no sense of artifice or disbelief as they slide from onecharacter to another.
Alladinas Sugar gives a rich and emotional performance as her advice ranges from funand snappy quick responses to more emotionally tied personal stories. Insteadof a cold, perfect person spouting advice, her Sugar is a warm and relatableperson who the readers know everything about except for her name.
Standoutmoments include Roque talking about parental rejection of who they are and howto deal with their parents request to be welcomed back into their life andSowunmi as a distraught mother trying to find a way to recover from a tragedy. Powell brought the audience to tears as grieving father with a powerfullymoving letter asking how to keep going after the loss of a child.
Beautifully directed by James Vásquez, the cast wander through Sugar’s house and the theatre giving the sense that they not only inhabit the mind of Sugar, but that they could have come directly from the audience as well. They take up residence in her living room, eating her food and helping themselves to a drink and while they all get close they never physically interact until a moment of profound connection.
Theliving room set by Wilson Chin is a comfortable and lived in space that furtheremphasizes the everyday in the stories of these letters. Lighting by AmandaZieve and costumes by Shirley Pierson compliment the set and the characters.
Basedon the book of the same name by Cheryl Strayed and adapted by Nia Vardalos, allof the letters in the book and the play are real. The warmth and the humorVardalos brings to the piece helps keep the balance between humor and theheartbreak. With topics ranging from having a crush on someone, to beingrejected by parents, miscarriages, and sexual assault; there is a gamut ofemotions at play throughout the show and the lighters moments are needed tokeep the momentum from getting too heavy.
Advicecolumns can be a risky proposition, and Sugar even acknowledges that there arecolumnists who approach giving advice as “The Ones Who Know” butthen goes on to assure everyone that she’s not that kind of columnist at all. She’s“The One Who Doesn’t Know But WhoWill Work Really Really Hard To See What I Can Find” and bases her advice on connecting through herpersonal experiences. While it gives a lot of backstory to the person thatSugar/Cheryl has become, it can also feel like the letters problems come secondto the desire to be front and center of the issue before those looking forguidance. At times it left me wondering if the stories were a generous gift ofvulnerability to share her deepest moments to give advice, or the completeinability to answer a question without inserting herself into the narrative.
Theshow is made up of personal stories and inquiries so there is no plot pointthat drives the action other than moving from one story to another. Yet it isthe compelling emotional connectivity that provides the forward motion.
Asa theatrical performance TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS emphasizes the best in whattheatre can do; take a room full of strangers and help them connect to thispersonal and powerful show through love, listening, and empathizing with theirstory.
TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS is playingthrough March 17th at The Old Globe Theatre. For ticket andshow time information go to www.theoldglobe.org