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| Stefhen Bryan |
I’ve had a fascination with Japan since I was a young boy and this show
about a Jamaican boy coming to the United States to find his father, getting an
education, and traveling to Japan to teach touched a nerve in my core being.
And without even thinking, I booked this show not knowing it was Super
Bowl Sunday, Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos playing the Seattle Seahawks.
I caught the first half of the game on a big screen at Don Antonio’s restaurant
on Pico Boulevard and thought, in my old coach’s voice as I was watching: “Peytin’,
ya ain’t got yer stuff son and I know in my hart dis ain’t yer night. It’s that
time when you take out Earl Morrall and stick in Johnny Unitas.”* And shaking my head at the end of the first half
I knew I wasn’t going to miss anything by missing this “Super Bowl”.
Theatre on this night was a very good choice. - Narrator
A funny thing about going to the Santa Monica Playhouse is
that it always rains when I go. Stogie
Kenyata’s Robeson show, rain, and Debra Ernhart’s Jamaica Farewell, rain, and
now Doodu Boy, rain again. Rain is always welcomed in Southern California and
gives it that extra-added flavor of being in Jamaica.
Meadowbrook Entertainment presents Doodu Boy written and
performed by Stefhen Bryan and directed and dramaturged by Jared Scheib at the
Santa Monica Playhouse through February 23, 2014 on Sundays at 6:00pm.
Doodu Boy is a fascinating look of a son searching for his
father, finding him, and never giving up his idea of connecting with the man
that gave him life. It is a story of
love, rejection, and abuse all in the course of finding one simple truth.
In this tiny black box theatre, and with two black apple
boxes, Bryan takes us on a journey from the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica, to New
York, Colorado, California, and then to Japan back to New York all in one night,
in an effort to reunite with his father.
And it all starts with 4-year-old Steve playing with himself
and Sister Jean saying, “It was the work of the devil.”
Little Steve and his mother shared a tiny room in Saint
Andrew Parish in Jamaica with a picture of Jesus on the wall and a bible
somewhere nearby. And while he sat on
the hard mattress, all he could think about was living with his daddy. And then a miracle happens, Steve’s daddy gives
him a tricycle for his birthday, but his hopes of seeing and living with his father
would not come on this day when he learns that his father has moved to America.
“Why didn’t he say
goodbye?” – Steve
That is a moment that Steve captured, a moment that lasts
his lifetime. Taking out his frustration with the need for speed, Steve takes
his tricycle and rides straight into a cesspool, losing his tricycle in the
process. He is pulled out of the tank with
an old sheet, stripped of his clothes, washed down with Pine-Sol and Lysol, and
all this in front of many people. And
after that is done, he gathers a switch for his mother’s beating, but all he
can think about is his lost tricycle and his daddy. And from here on end “Doodu Boy” would be his
moniker.
By the age of 11, Mom and son have separate rooms, the
beatings continued and while holding a pair of scissors Steve has thoughts of
killing his mother but takes his frustration out on a cat and kills it by
mistake.
When Steve turns 15, Steve’s mother is finally fed up and
takes Steve to the airport to travel to New York to live with his father and
stepmother Clarissa. When he gets there his father looks surprisingly like
Shaft.
But that is about as much excitement as it gets when Steve
finds out that his father doesn’t want him living with him and after three
months goes so far as to change the locks on the door to keep him out. Clarrisa
is none too happy with this chain of events but his father decides to get rid
of Steve and sends him on a 4-day Greyhound bus ride to live with his aunt Ann
in Colorado. Ann greets him with a warm
hug.
“So this is what a
good hug feels like.”
But a progression of change starts in Colorado, Steve
changes his name to Stefhen, drops out of high school, and at this point,
things are not looking too promising for this young man.
Nevertheless Stefhen enrolls in a two-year college, and
after 5 years he finishes, enrolls in UCLA, and gets his BA in Economics.
He travels back to see his father but his father, who is watching
his newly born son, Steve, calls the cops and Stefhen is almost arrested.
Despite having a valued perspicacity, Stephen does not
really understand all that has transpired.
So he travels to Jamaica to visit his mother and grandmother.
“Let sleeping dogs die.” – grandmother
During this journey he finds out a truth about his father,
why her mother beat him relentlessly, why he should reject this information,
and turn his attention to God.
“I am an atheist.” – Stefhen
“You are not my son.” – Mother
There are a lot of very interesting things in this
production including the direction by Jared
Scheib and the performance by Stefhen
Bryan.
Bryan, the actor,
shows us that he can be an actor when the need arises. Certainly he has the
capacity to tell a story, the physical wherewithal, and develops an intelligent
character who suffers human miseries. His mimicry of a Japanese man speaking
with an English accent is terrific.
The play, written by Stefhen
Bryan, includes stories from his book, Black
Passenger Yellow Cabs: A Memoir of Exile
and Excess in Japan. This play and this journey are about a man and his
troubled relationship with his father. And I like this focal point, this
through-line of the play.
Although it is tough to find a connection of his sexual
exploits in Japan to his relationship with his father (and it gets very
uncomfortable here), there is a connection, somewhere, which needs further
exploration. It’s just not found yet, or not solidified. If the exploits in Japan are seen to have a
relationship with the father, a young man trying to find his way back to his
father, then it may strengthen the progression of the play. Certainly, the Japanese
sexual exploits may appeal to men in their thirties who are going to visit
Japan, but the father-son relationship and story would have a broader appeal.
For example, the Japanese doctor who might be seen as a
father figure is one element to tie this all together. (And by the way, this is
an extremely funny moment in the play.) But, the character must engage the
doctor in ways that lead us back home to his father.
Also Stefhen never really questions his father’s motives. When
he visits his mother and grandmother, he should be on a quest to find the truth
and that should be his maw. That is done
through the actor’s physical and emotional instrument. He should be obliquely
prowling for the answers so that when he doesn’t get it from his grandmother,
he should figuratively run to his mother and demand it. After all he’s old
enough now to understand.
And when he gets his answer there should be a dramatic
effect from finding the truth. Maybe it
did not happen in real life but for dramatic purposes should happen on the page
and on the stage.
Stefhen Bryan, the
writer, has written a very clever story.
Bryan is articulate and tells his story with a dramatic flair. But there are certain story elements about
his father left out. What was the
father’s work? Why did he have a very
nice car? And a nice stereo? Living in a
nice apartment in New York City? And why
don’t we get an inkling of truth from this character?
Jared Scheib does
a nice job in directing the production. There
are always things that should be tweaked, added, even thought about when
performing a new work. But overall the
production flows evenly.
Nicely produced by Debra
Ehrhardt. Executive Producer Juan
Pablo Frias and the Associate producer is Jon Hanson.
Doodu Boy will be in New York March 2014.
* Superbowl III New York Jets 16 – Baltimore Colts 7
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