Nathan Barlow, Aimee K. Bryant, Johanna Easley and James A. Williams in Akeelah And The Bee. Photo by Dan Norman.
Akeelah And The Bee (Children’s Theatre Company, through Oct 11) tells a real story. The characters have substance, arcs, power. There is a plot, and it’s a plot you can get your teeth into. Akeelah Anderson, a focused and passionate eleven yo girl from the southside of Chicago rises above the mean streets of her neighborhood and triumphs in spelling bees. First she takes top honors in the state been, then travels to the national competition, where she…. All right, I won’t spoil it for you; there is a nifty twist to the ending.
Newcomer Johannah Easley plays Akeelah with what I would call calm zest. Compared with the other denizens of her neighborhood, family, school – her slipping-into-criminality brother (Nathan Barlow), the born-again neighbor lady (the ever-delightful Greta Oglesby), her struggling mother (Aimee K. Bryant), her screechy school chum (the lithe and athletic Shavunda Horsley) – Akeelah lives in a special world. She evinces raw intelligence and cool ambition. She pursues the esoteric spelling championship with passion. She knows she has potential but she also knows she needs to work, work hard. This she does, and she makes us feel her triumph. Wonderful – and major kudoes are due to writer Cheryl L. West.
But Akeelah And The Bee has serious problems. First there are the shallow and predictable characters. The crotchety and impatient spelling coach with a massive collection of books and a heart of gold (played with quiet intelligence by the reliable James A. Williams). Akeelah’s snooty spelling bee arch-rival with a heart of gold (Sean Phinney). The thug with a heart of gold (he helps Akeelah rehearse – Darius Dotch). Akeelah’s brother who reveals his golden heart by stealing only to buy Akeelah nice clothes for the competition.
Sometimes this character thinness segues into outright offensiveness: the humorless Asian father (Michael Sung-Ho) who puts grim pressure to succeed on his harried son is a prime example. Eek.
An even more severe problem derives from the cinematic provenance of the play (it is based upon a 2006 film written and directed by Doug Atchison). Like a movie, Akeelah unfolds in a series of brief scenes, separated by blackouts and halflit scene changes, with four rather severe set pieces twisting and twirling through the action, curtains flying in and out, video screens, sound effects. It’s dazzling but the constant scene changes keeps us from getting truly involved. They kill energy. They give the proceedings a herky-jerky, choppy structure and this, combined with the thin characters, is lethal. There are, one reads, plans afoot to move this production Out East. I’m worried.
Certainly, there is a lot of cleverness on display here and director Charles Randolph-Wright deserves credit for finding a way to keep the cinematic play chugging along. West keeps the focus on Akeelah and as a result – despite everything – the play finds a center.
John Olive is a writer living in Minneapolis. His book Tell Me A Story In The Dark has recently been published. His plays Sideways Stories From Wayside School and Art Dog will be produced by Childsplay Arizona and by The Salt Lake Acting Co., respectively. His screenplay A Slaying Song Tonight has been optioned. For further info please visit www.johnolive.net.