There are many exciting elements at play with the west coast premiere of Angelica Chéri‘s Berta, Berta at the Echo Theater Company with a talented cast composed of Kacie Rogers & DeJuan Christopher and director Andi Chapman (who I’ve been a stalwart fan of for years).

But while there is no doubt that the commitment from the actors are sublime, the plot machinations involving supernatural elements tied with oppression and excessive usage of long-form monologues unfortunately make this experience a very convoluted and drawn out one.

Berta, Berta is a sensuous love story by Angelica Chéri that was inspired by a prison chain gang song from Parchman Farm. In 1920s Mississippi, Leroy has committed an unforgivable crime and is ready to accept his punishment: incarceration at notorious Parchman Farm. He has just one final wish before he’s caught – a chance to make amends with his long lost love, Berta. Their reunion swells from a quarrelsome conjuring of the past to an impassioned plot to escape their impending fate.

Let’s start with the biggest things going for this show and that’s the actors who carry this through. Kacie Rogers is absolutely spell-binding to watch and crafts such a delightful and complex character in Berta. Her co-star DeJuan Christopher also matches her weight in his sheer charm and gravitas with the only critique I would give is that his anger is played out relatively one note in an oafish manner that would have benefited in some more nuanced brushstrokes. With these two immensely talented actors, they make the most out of a script that while it has kinetic energy and crackling purpose (which might lean a little too much into Black trauma but I’ll get into that later), it is unfortunately bogged down by the playwright’s tendencies to insert many drawn out monologues and supernatural plot machinations that only made the story unnecessarily convoluted.

Two-hander plays carry an enormous challenging weight that also becomes this bewitching challenge for actors to really flex their acting chops. But the playwright tendency for many two-handers is the need for long-form monologues that unless it’s used sparingly with precise purpose, these monologue showcases always and inevitably drag the pace of any show to a crawl every single time. Such is the case for Berta, Berta and while Rogers and Christopher are more than capable to meet the challenge every single time, it eventually becomes performative and unnatural especially when this play has many exemplary moments of spitfire banter and dialogue between the two characters.

Perhaps the biggest detriment to this play however is the supernatural element that serves as the main plot machination driving this story forward. While there is no question the playwright put a lot of thought into the mysticism drawn from the African American slave experience, they ended up being half-baked in its execution. The play was at its strongest when it simply deals with these two very complex characters as they are and that despite their immense chemistry and passion, are just not right for each other.

Personally, I have a very difficult time with any play nowadays that deals with some form of oppression trauma put up in a PWI theatre company or where most of the audience members watching a play are white. While there is no doubt such stories need to be told and keep being told especially from the global majority perspective, there is a part of me that absolutely believes these types of stories are the only desirable ones accepted by theatre companies (not singling out Echo Theater Company but as a whole) because Allah forbid there’s anything that is just ordinary global majority folks living out their lives with issues that isn’t pertaining to some form of oppression pertaining to their identity. It is also something most likely conditioned on so many writers to write about oppression trauma because that’s what gets sold, published, and distributed whether it is of their own or of others.

Despite my numerous criticisms and reservations about this play, I will always make space for works created, directed, and acted by global majority artists and that is where I’ll end this review. Though this play could have used a re-write when it came to the supernatural elements and the play itself being shaved down 10-15 minutes, it is nevertheless a piece carried by strong performances, an assured direction, and wonderful set design by Amanda Knehans.

BERTA, BERTA
• Written by Angelica Chéri
• Directed by Andi Chapman
• Starring DeJuan Christopher and Kacie Rogers
• Presented by The Echo Theater Company, Chris Fields artistic director

WHEN:
Previews, July 16, July 17, July 18 at 8 p.m.
Performances, July 19 through August 25:
• Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays at 8 p.m. / Sundays at 4 p.m.

WHERE:
Echo Theater Company
Atwater Village Theatre
3269 Casitas Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039

PARKING:
FREE in the Atwater Crossing (AXT) lot one block south of the theater.

TICKET PRICES:
• Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays: $38
• Mondays and Previews: Pay–What–You–Want

HOW:
www.EchoTheaterCompany.com
(747) 350-8066