Furlough’s Paradise Review: Finding Common Ground
Theater Alliance’s “Furlough’s Paradise” boasts strong performances in a family drama that feels too familiar.
Estranged cousins Mina (Renea S. Brown) and Sade (Hillary Jones) in a.k. payne’s intimate drama Furlough’s Paradise could hardly be more different in taste and temperament, but they still share more in common than just blood.
Despite wildly differing living circumstances, both women risk hoping for their version of a better future. They both harbor dreams that feel so big they have to keep them closely guarded, and both are haunted by choices they made that led them down uncertain paths.
Mina and Sade once shared a childhood, a sisterhood and friendship, bonds that frayed as their lives arced in seemingly opposite directions. Mina, the bright Ivy League grad, now lives in L.A. on a plump Google salary. Sade, of whom far less was expected, resides in a cell inside a West Virginia state prison.
The play, astutely staged by Autumn Angelettie in a new production at Theater Alliance, cozies up with the cousins for a tense, yet healing weekend. The pair attempts to reconnect, making the best of Sade’s three-day furlough from prison to attend her mother’s funeral.
It’s a sad occasion for both, and a sober drama, in general, but it’s buoyed by sharp humor and well-placed nostalgia for the Black Millennial cultural touchstones that bond these two.
The cousin that got out, and the one who was overshadowed into oblivion — we’ve seen them before, and payne’s script doesn’t reinvent the types or redefine their arguments. Sade contends that her cousin got over because the game is rigged for crossover Black folks like Mina, while Mina laments the cost she pays daily having to constantly code-switch her identity.
Furlough’s Paradise joins a growing catalog of art and media tackling the subject of this intra-racial divide — W. Kamau Bell’s 2018 comedy special Private School Negro, and André Robert Lee’s 2012 documentary feature The Prep School Negro are two good, and notably male-centered, examples.
Addressing the subject via two strong, smart young women might be the play’s essential innovation. Certainly, payne provides two meaty female roles, which Brown and Jones each do well to make their own.
Brown captures that girl who knows she code-switches in conversation but can’t help it. Sade’s the more readily expressive cousin, though, and Jones fills out the bigness of the character without overplaying it. Together, she and Brown present an interesting contrast, even when the cousins find themselves totally on the same page.
As it turns out, both cousins are in a relationship with a woman. Mina’s girlfriend is an actress, and Sade’s is another inmate, we learn, as they shoot the shit about girlfriends just like any cousins might. They spend the entire weekend inside their grandmother’s old apartment, and the mood feels natural. So do the set design, costumes, and lighting.
The play plots a few moments of escape to dreams and nightmares, entailing excellent physical acting by Jones, abetted by Matthew M. Nielson’s evocatively layered sound design. Often, we can hear the low hum of the TV in the background as Mina and Sade pore over the innermost elements of their lives, arguing, confessing, or pouring out their hearts to each other.
“There’s been a lot of death lately,” one tells the other, implying they should hold on to whatever love they’ve got, even the complicated, conflicted familial love they share. It might not equal paradise, but it’s better than being alone.
Furlough’s Paradise (★★★☆☆) runs through Nov. 23 at Theater Alliance’s pop-up performance space (and soon-to-be new permanent home), 340 Maple Dr. SW. Tickets are $45, with Pay-What-You-Will options, and discounts for students, seniors, and military personnel. Call 202-241-2539, or visit theateralliance.com.
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