Recent Yale School of Drama graduate Tarell Alvin McCraney grew up gay in public housing in the Liberty City section of Miami the son of a crack-addicted mother who died of AIDS; he worked as an actor with theater director Peter Brook and served as an assistant to the playwright August Wilson. All of these experiences and several more seem put to good use in McCraney’s remarkable “The Brother/Sister Plays,” a trilogy being presented in repertory at the Public Theater through December 13th.

All three of McCraney’s plays take place in the “Distant Present.” With these two words in the program notes, we get a succinct introduction to the distinct world McCraney has created, a world that is lyrical; full of dreams recalled and re-created if not understood; even mythological. Indeed, he is said to have borrowed stories and even the names of characters from African Yoruban mythology.

At the same time, McCraney’s plays are rooted in a specific place, the fictional town of San Pere, Louisiana, and peopled with largely believable African-American characters, people whose humor, conflicts, dreams and disappointments seem authentically observed. As if intending to start his own version of August Wilson’s epic accomplishment – his ten plays chronicling the lives of African-Americans in the Hill section of Pittsburgh for each of the 10 decades of the twentieth century — McCraney, who turned 29 in October, has written three plays that span a couple of generations of interlocking families.

“In The Red and Brown Water” focuses on a high school runner named Oya who passes through missed opportunities and failed loves into womanhood. “The Brothers Size” has just three characters (two of them in the “Red” play as well) and focuses on the relationship between two brothers, Oshoosi Size, recently released from prison, and his more reliable sibling, Ogun Size, and the bisexual ex-inmate who briefly comes between them. In the third play, “Marcus: Or The Secret of Sweet,” many of the characters are the off-spring of the characters in the first two plays. It tells of the coming-of-age and coming-out of the 16-year-old title character.

“In The Red and Brown Water” is performed as the first part of the trilogy; the other two plays are grouped together as the second part. The Public Theater tells us that we can see just one part without seeing the other, and that if we decided to see both parts, we don’t have to see them in any particular order. The plays will also be presented over the weekends in marathon matinee and evening performances.

I saw them in the marathon. I seem to like marathon theater-going. But it’s true. Any one of these plays can be appreciated on its own, in part because the overall plots are not so important, and are in fact at times vague, inconclusive or confusing; I have enough trouble figuring out my own relatives.

What ties these plays together besides the stories and the characters is the appeal of the atmosphere and the lure of the language. There are stunning moments of stagecraft, and dialogue that is regional and ethnic vernacular poetically heightened: In the “Red and Brown Water,” to pick an example, Ogun Size is attracted to Oya, but she is reluctant to admit even to herself that she has eyes for Shango, a boastful man of whom Oya’s mother Mama Moja disapproves.

“He alright mama,” Oya assures her, “Don’t mix words on him, he just smelling himself.”
“The scent strong,” her mother replies. “You sure you don’t smell him too?”

The characters also describe their own actions, as if they were reading the stage directions: “Oya smiles,” the actress Kianne Muschett will say, and then smile. Director Tina Landau in this first play, and director Robert O’Hara in the other two, present McCraney’s theatrical language with an equivalent stage lyricism. This first play begins with the cast dressed all in white, pouring buckets full of water on the ground, although it is not really water; it is a lighting effect made to seem like water, one of many pleasing effects by lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski. But there is real water too, nearly a waterfall in scenic designer James Schuette’s otherwise spare set.

As with much poetry, McCraney’s trilogy sometimes achieves its beauty while sacrificing some of its clarity. The sacrifice might have been unacceptably high were it not for the splendidly down-to-earth acting. All nine actors are so good — entertaining, charming, compelling, sympathetic (or at least understandable) even when playing characters who are behaving like jerks — that it is almost unfair to single any out. If I had to pick one, though, it would be Andre Holland, who appeared in the most recent Broadway revival of August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” (the show the Obamas attended). Holland appears in all three plays, first as Elegba, and then in the last play as the title character Marcus. And if I had to pick one play, “Marcus” is the one that stood out for me, as the most accessible and entertaining. But of course, I don’t have to pick. There is no worse curse than calling somebody promising, except maybe calling them (as Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis does) “a major new voice in the American theater.” So let’s just say: Put me down for a subscription to the future works of Tarell Alvin McCraney.

Join my New York Theater Facebook page or follow me on my New York Theater Twitter page
–
The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell Alvin McCraney
at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street
425 Lafayette Street
Part I: In the Red and Brown Water
directed by Tina Landau
Part II: The Brothers Size
Marcus; Or The Secret of Sweet
Directed by Robert O’Hara
Scenic design by James Schuette, costume design by Karen Perry, lighting esign by Peter Kaczorowski.
With Sterling K. Brown, Kimberly Heber Gregory, Brian Tyree Henry, Andre Holland, Marc Damon Johnson, Sean Allan Krill, Angela Lewis, Nikiya Mathis, Kianne Muschett, Heather Alicia Simms.
Running Time — Part I, about two hours with an intermission
Part II, about two hours with an intermission
Full price tickets $40 to $70 (per Part)
$20 Rush Standby tickets will be sold 60 minutes before each performance at the Public Theater Box Office.

Photographs by Joan Marcus, courtesy the Public Theater. Top: Scene from “Marcus; Or The Secret of Sweet”; middle, “The Brothers Size”; bottom, “In The Red and Brown Water”

Email