All You Need Is Love
Gayle Bartos-Pool
April 20, 2009
Your guide is the multi-talented actress, Sybyl Walker, who wrote and performs this one-woman tour-de-force that explores various faces of love.
The delightful Ms. Walker opens the performance in the guise of Amortheus, the Narrator, with a handful of lines from various old love songs, each a plaintiff cry for lost love. You soon realize love just ainīt what itīs cracked up to be.
So with a change of costume, Ms. Walker morphs into the "Get Down with Yo Bad Self" persona of T-Baby, a no-holds barred lady with attitude. But as T-Baby says, when love goes bad, you gots to get goinī, girl. And she does, straight to retreat for women where T-Baby explains her trouble with men. She gets advice from the lady who runs this AA-like clinic for damsels in distress to "love yourself more than others do."
Armed with new resolve, T-Baby charges out into the world with new strength, only to meet one super fine dude named Rudy, or Sir Rude-E, who sweeps her off her feet. After the "role-playing" (from characters from Charlieīs Angels to Fred Sanford) T-Baby, who has gotten a gig at a local comedy club, realizes Rudy doesnīt want to share the spotlight with her. So, in a farewell scene done like a musical, Rudy leaves and T-Baby, now back to her real name, Taletha, sings a few bars of "I Will Survive" and moves on with her life.
The second story is the poignant remembrance of a woman who years earlier had met a fine gentleman at a dance. As a young girl, she had dreamed of such a chance encounter, and here he was. He confesses that his wealthy family wants him to marry another woman, sort of a business merger, but he will defy his family if she will consent to marry him. She hesitates. He goes to what he thinks is her family home only to learn that his beloved Pearline isnīt the daughter of this wealthy white family, but actually the black maid in the household. He calls Pearline and says he doesnīt care, but she turns him down. Years pass, his letters arrive, but are left unopened, until this day when she learns he has passed away. She tears open his last letter and learns a bitter-sweet truth.
The third in the trilogy of love tales is a sweet encounter with a "mentally challenged" young girl called Lavender. She sits in a giant rocking chair repeating "87, 87, 87" to herself. She is considered dumb by her "friends," but this young lady has abundant charm. Lavender has trouble expressing herself in public, but she knows all those big words are in her head, if she could just get them out.
At the annual Special Friends Picnic, she is introduced to a young boy named Bobby, but Lavender calls him Robert. He likes that. Robert is a little slow, like molasses, says Lavender, but the two have a great time being together, and while playing, Robert gives her a kiss, her first kiss, and says he loves her. This is a huge thing for Miss Lavender. She is in ecstasy. And Robert says they can do it again next year. Boy, "only 392 days," she says. "Itīs 365," he corrects. Wow! Heīs smart, too. So Lavender sits in her rocking chair and looks at the calendar. Only 87...no, now itīs 86 days to go. Ah, love.
This is a delightful play. Ms. Walker takes you through "loving life moments" and asks you to "surrender to the possibility to love." Bring it on, baby. GIGATT (You bet.)
Beneath Rippling Waters runs through May 17, 2009, at the Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Avenue (at El Centro), South Pasadena, CA 91030. Tickets $25. Students and Seniors $20. Reservations: (866) 811-4111. Online ticketing: www.fremontcentretheatre.com
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