Fascia, Ma’at Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre, at Chicago Dramatists. Shepsu Aakhu’s new play, directed by Mignon McPherson Nance, is both frustrating and emotionally satisfying. Its goal–to tell the story of five generations of a troubled African-American family simultaneously–is often undermined by an obstinate insubstantiality: it’s difficult to pin down the action and characters. When an actress comes back onstage with a minor hairdo change, is she playing the same character as when she left? Or her mother or sister? Or a younger version of herself? In order to conceal a plot twist, the story’s frame–two cousins in the present are trying to reconnect–is kept sketchy until the end. The result is a seemingly random weaving of subplots and characters in the first act as difficult to interpret as history in the making.
