Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C.

The Blood Quilt
Arena Stage


Nikiya Mathis, Tonye Patano, Meeya Davis, Afi Bijou, and Caroline Clay
Sisterhood, as the saying goes, is powerful, and when the four sisters are as strong-willed and outspoken as the ones in The Blood Quilt, Katori Hall's play receiving its premiere production in the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage in Washington, that means the dramatic fireworks are going to be impressive.

Director Kamilah Forbes has created a self-contained world on a sea island off the Georgia coast. She and her five actresses work together to create harmony out of strong, diverse personalities; the sixth character is the ancestral home, which measures time in centuries rather than years. Michael Carnahan's expressionistic scenic design uses quilts and draping fabric in tropical colors, primarily shades of orange, to represent the walls of a house that has withstood both hurricanes and personal traumas; Michael Gilliam's shafts and washes of light add to the illusion of beauty in isolation.

The women of the Jernigan family have crafted exquisitely personal quilts from the days of slavery to the present. Each year they gather at the family home on Kwamera Island to create the next in an ongoing series of quilts. This year is different, however, as the sisters are returning home for the first time after their mother's death.

The sisters—each with a different father—are Clementine (Tonye Patano), who stayed on the island and took over her mother's job as a midwife; Gio (Caroline Clay), a tough-talking policewoman; Cassan (Nikiya Mathis), an Army wife, nurse, and mother of 15-year-old Zambia (Afi Bijou); and Amber (Meeya Davis), an entertainment lawyer. They all have grievances and unfinished business with each other and with their mother, which bubble up as a symbolic storm approaches the island.

Hall's script expertly balances sharp quips with internalized pain, enhanced by Toshi Reagon's score and some rapturous moments of a cappella singing. If some of the plot turns seem more grounded than others, the work as a whole holds together.

Out of a tight ensemble, Clay stands out with her no-nonsense manner and prickly exterior, but Patano and Mathis also get emotional outbursts that play like spoken arias. Davis exposes hidden depths as the one sister who has moved away from the family into the larger world. Bijou charms as a teenager who communicates in LOL-speak and is trying on various forms of personal expression.

Arena Stage
The Blood Quilt
April 24th —June 7th
By Katori Hall
Clementine: Tonye Patano
Gio: Caroline Clay
Cassan: Nikiya Mathis
Zambia: Afi Bijou
Amber: Meeya Davis
Directed by Kamilah Forbes
Kreeger Theater, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, Sixth and Maine avenues SW Washington, DC Ticket Information: 202-488-3300 or www.arenastage.org


Photo: C. Stanley Photography