Tag: Fairview

A Fair Warning: Speakeasy’s ‘Fairview’ is an Experience Not to Be Missed

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Cast of Speakeasy’s ‘Fairview’. Lyndsay Allyn Cox, Dom Carter, Yewande Odetoyinbo, Victoria Omoregie. Photos: Nile Scott Studios

‘Fairview’ –Written by Jackie Sibblies Drury. Directed by Pascale Florestal. Scenic Design by Erik D. Diaz. Costume Design by Becca Jewett. Lighting Design by Aja M. Jackson. Sound Design by James Cannon. Fight and Intimacy Choreography by Amanda O’Donnell. At the Roberts Studio Theater, Boston, through March 11, 2023.

by Linda Chin

SpeakEasy’s highly-anticipated Boston premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning Fairview is billed as a bold and disarmingly funny play. Set in the tastefully appointed home of the Frasiers, a seemingly typical, middle-class Black American family, in contemporary times (a portrait of the Obamas adorns the living room wall), the play opens with the household abuzz with preparations for Grandma’s birthday celebration. But lest audience members expect to sit back, relax, and laugh for the duration of this 100-minute, intermission-less play, be “fair warned” that only the first of the three acts is a comedy (and includes a fair share of family drama that I found both familiar and funny). Its sitcom style is reminiscent of popular shows of earlier decades, like The Cosby Show, The Jeffersons, and Family Matters.

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Trinity Rep’s “Fairview” Takes an Interactive Look at Race

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Mia Ellis, Aizhaneya Carter, and Jackie Davis in Trinity Rep’s “Fairview”

by Tony Annicone

Trinity Repertory Company’s closing show of their 2021/22 season is “Fairview”, a Pulitzer Prize winning show by Jackie Sibblies Drury. It is about an upper middle class African American family that starts off as a sitcom a la “Good Times”, but then becomes confrontational. The play also turns interactive with a riveting performance by Aizhaneya Carter, who plays the young daughter, Keisha. The play opens with Beverly peeling carrots and humming a song as she prepares a Birthday dinner for her mother. She wants the birthday party to be a success, and waits for Keisha to join in the festivities when she gets home from basketball practice, while her husband, Dayton shows up to help her with the dinner. Her sister Jasmine arrives with the best wine from France and starts to gossip and complain about things. Here are the ingredients for the first part of the show. All seems well with a harried wife, a goofy husband, an exuberant daughter and a snooty sister until voices are heard spouting some unpleasantries during scene 2.

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