Walls of inheritance are more than academic in 'TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever'

Intense and topically urgent, "TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever" hints at its satirical thrust in the style of the title, resembling as it does middle-school graffiti. Serious issues lie beneath its sketchy presentation, but the show's atmosphere is overall comical. 

The one-act play opens this weekend in a production at Fonseca Theatre Company. As seen Friday night, the show is vibrant under Josiah McCruiston's direction. It doesn't paint with as broad a brush as the director's notes suggest, but he clearly wants it to be open to an interpretation that advocates tearing down all barriers to equality that have stood firm historically.

TJ makes his exra-academic intentions clear to Sally.

The figures identified in the title are in one sense Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, and his enslaved mistress, Sally Hemings. Her contemporary namesake is played by Chandra Lynch as an ambitious graduate student focused on entering the academic world with her dignity intact. 

On a homecoming weekend fraught with tension between campus protests and the official desire of Commonwealth of Virginia University to celebrate itself, her fight to resist the predatory behavior of the dean she's working for comes to a head. The dean, who is of course Thomas Jefferson (TJ), undergoes a dark night of the soul — or maybe it's performative — and ends up in alienation from the progress that Sally, her sorority sisters Annette and Pam, and black agitator Harold envision toward a paradise of freedom.

To describe the scene of that eventuality would be a huge spoiler, so here I will just credit the design team (Joy Caroline Mills, lighting; Ben Dobler, sound, and Kristopher D. Steege, scene) with achieving the right interface of reality and illusion in an academic world suggestive of Charlottesville, Virginia. That location, in both its recent and its Early American  history, sounds all the resonant notes the playwright intends with this play.

Young black women skeptical of Southern-belle finery

The lesson of that history, including the vision of a society more just and well-founded, shapes the play's style. Just as Bertolt Brecht wanted theatergoers to grapple with their unjust world away from the stage, Ijames (authoritatively pronounced "like 'times' without the 't'") dispenses with the fourth wall to present issues and reorient "entertainment." Responsiveness and learning are essential. To drive home significance,  Annette and Pam present "footnotes" of explanation from time to time. Sally talks directly to the audience about her plight, poses questions, and even makes a few interactive demands. (I've never before been urged from the stage to wave my hands in the air at a play, but why not? And also, why? )

The characters stand for certain roles and power relationships, and the cast deserves credit for projecting these in the playwright's sometimes uproarious terms. Eric Bryant has the task of giving three outsized dimensions to a stand-in for white-supremacy and sexism. The playwright does not put much effort in giving him motivation outside of what he represents. Bryant's performance Friday was all the more impressive for being so pivotal to what happens in "TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever." 

TJ stands unclad under the withering scorn of students.

As Harold, Atiyyah Radford similarly is given little character depth. He's a fierce antagonist of white power, and puts plenty of fiery indignation into his portrayal of someone ready to tear the establishment down. He loudly poses the real background of slavery and exploitation behind the university's success, including the way it extracts donations from rich beneficiaries of the system, then names buildings in their honor. 

The portrayal of campus guides, with their upbeat, sing-songy narratives and the need to walk backwards gracefully, is one part of what Shandrea Funnye and Avery Elise do well. So are the girls' cynical selves in balance with their emotional investment in sorority life, including the choreographed chants that symbolize their collective unity in an environment not suited to their needs.

They thus provide an emotional resource for Sally, the character with whom the audience is freest to empathize. The way Chandra Lynch played her Friday was key to smoothing the way for a lively piece of theater designed to showcase obstacles to the empowerment of minorities. In some sense, "TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever" is a Black Lives Matter rant after the manner of a religion-free Sunday School pageant. Fortunately, the production is put together capably and with the banner of entertainment held high. 

[Photos: Ankh Productions]