From left: Edward Mawere, Jamyl Dobson (facing backwards) and Leland Fowler take on the roles in Donja R. Love’s One in Two by the New Group. The actors play different parts at different perfrormances.
Donja R. Love’s new play, One in Two, captures the truth, humor, pain, love and realism of being a full-fledged human: specifically a black, gay or bisexual man living with HIV. It’s a beautiful, albeit graphic, story of Donté, a community, a life—many lives.
Dobson (left) with Mawere in the role of Donté.
Love opens the play with audience participation, as the actor who is to play the leading character, Donté, is chosen by applause from the audience. The criteria will be: who is most popular? The strongest? Smartest? Sexiest? Ultimately, the audience just claps for whomever they like. After Donté is chosen, the other two then play “Rock, paper, scissors” to decide who will become Actor No. 2 and Actor No. 3, who both play multiple roles. (This random process means that each actor must know all the parts.)
As the actors assume their roles, they themselves become as much characters as those Love has created, in the manner of Luigi Pirandello. “Wait. Shouldn’t we, shouldn’t we tell them, like, who we are first?” asks Actor 3 (Leland Fowler on the night this reviewer attended). “So they don’t just see us as a number?”
“It doesn’t matter,” replies Donté (Edward Mawere). His answer reflects the harsh notion that the characters are just statistics. Love’s script emphasizes the theme of anonymity, identifying his creations as “person-on-the-left,” “person-on-the-right,” “kinda ex-boyfriend,” etc. The only character who has a name is Donté. He is the voice of the black, gay, bisexual and HIV-positive community.
The lights (by Cha See) flicker and change, and in an instant the actors are in a playground, as the “characters” take over from the “actors.” As children, they relive the times of their youth and innocence—boys being boys and playing games, with laughter and lightness. Life for them is full, and it lives in the humor of their playing duck-duck goose to “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
Then club music (designed by Justin Ellington) smoothly indicates a change of scene. Donté is now in a bar that has seamlessly appeared from Arnulfo Maldonado’s imaginative, innovative and functional design. Other parts of the simple-looking set, which resembles a waiting room, transform into multiple levels, with a bed, a tub and a drawer that the actors to get costumes and props appearing from behind panels. Donté asks the bartender to give him a drink.
The bar is where the adult Donté’s story unfolds. Here the audience sees the moment he finds out that he has tested HIV-positive, the support center he joins, and a random sexual hookup. Donté, who is gay, spirals into a deep depression, alcoholism and reckless behavior. The support he thought he had from his “kinda ex-boyfriend” is gone. His mother (played with compassion and empathy by Jamyl Dobsen) is the one person who remains by his side. Donté feels alone and as if he is living in a “blur.” Everything seems fuzzy; he doesn’t know how to get out of the depression, and he becomes suicidal. At this point, a tub appears and he gets in.
Dobson with Mawere as Donté. Photographs by Monique Carboni.
Once of the most poignant moments in Stevie Walker-Webb’s production comes when the actor playing Donté stops this scene and says he doesn’t want to go through with it. He wants to live. He wants to change the script. Actor 2 supports this bold move. Actor 3 does not, because he is afraid of what will happen if they break the mold. Actor 3 says, “We don’t have a choice. This ain’t no game that you can cut on and off, or stop playing because it’s not going your way. This is a story. Donté’s story, that we have to tell. You don’t think I get tired of having to go through this story over and over again?” he asks, suggesting it’s like Groundhog Day, and the characters must relive the drama repeatedly for the audience. The reason, he says, is the hope that “letting them see this reality that maybe it won’t have to be our reality anymore.”
After a physical struggle, Actor 3 retreats, and Donté and Actor 2 begin to dream up ways of how the story can end. They touch on happy endings and grim HIV statistics for the black community. They refuse to accept that the numbers cannot improve, yet Love provides no happy ending—nor even a conventional one. Mawere, Dobson and Fowler are talented, brave and passionate artists. They give their roles heart and integrity. One in Two is a relevant and eye-opening play that is a must-see this season.
The New Group production of One in Two runs through Jan. 12 at the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd St.). Evening performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8 p.m. on Saturday. Matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and information, call (917) 935-4242 or visit thenewgroup.org.
