"The Brothers Size," Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at Geffen Playhouse, August 22 - September 8, 2024
August 30, 2024 | By Bruce R. Feldman
In Brief: For his first show as the Geffen’s new artistic director, playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney revisits one of his earliest works. The production is spare, but its impact is impressive, thanks to plaintive writing, masterful acting, and confident direction.
L-R: Alani iLongwe, Malcolm Mays and Sheaun McKinney in "The Brothers Size" at Geffen Playhouse. (Photo: Jeff Lorch)
The premise of The Brothers Size is simple. Two brothers are finally forced to confront their strained relationship after a lifetime of guilt and disappointment. The younger one, Oshoosi (Alani ilongwe), is just out of prison. He has come to live with his older brother, Ogun (Sheaun McKinney), a hardworking automobile mechanic.
Ogun doesn’t want to see his brother backslide. He gives him a job at the garage and encourages him to stay on the right path. Oshoosi is indifferent to the work. He dreams of getting a car so he can take long drives.
Elegba (Malcolm Mays), a friend from prison and who also has just been released, “finds” a car for his buddy. (McCraney doesn’t say that Elegba stole it, but that is what the audience assumes.)
The two go for a ride in the country. Elegba doesn’t tell Oshoosi that he’s carrying cocaine in his bag. They have a run in with the law but manage to escape arrest. Oshoosi flees to Ogun’s apartment, leaving his older brother with the dilemma of turning him in or helping him to run off to Mexico.
L-R: Alani iLongwe and Sheaun McKinney in "The Brothers Size" at Geffen Playhouse. (Photo: Jeff Lorch)
The thin plot isn’t McCraney’s point here. He’s more interested in the journey of his characters and the interaction between the two men. One is responsible, the other a screw up who resents his older brother. Ogun feels remorseful that he hasn’t helped Oshoosi enough and that he is failing him yet again.
Unresolved family guilt, regret, recrimination, pain – this is the stuff that fascinates McCraney. If he cannot tell us how to avoid it or fix it, he can at least help us to understand it, the first step on a path to healing.
The playwright relies heavily on the elements of West African storytelling to illuminate this piece of the Black American experience. At the outset, one of the characters makes a circle on the floor out of ashes. Characters carefully enter and leave the action without disturbing the circle, underscoring the importance of the ritual and of the lessons that McCraney wants to impart.
Musician Stan Mathabane in "The Brothers Size" at Geffen Playhouse. (Photo: Jeff Lorch)
Music and dance (or choreographed movement) also figure prominently in the storytelling tradition, and they do here as well. As the audience enters the small black box performance space, a musician, Stan Mathabane, plays soulful saxophone in the style of Pharoah Sanders. During the action, he uses drums and percussion instruments to punctuate key moments.
Adam Honoré's very expressive lighting also contributes to the overall hypnotic feel of the entire production, emphasizing not so much time and place as mood and memory.
Of course, all of this theatrical magic would mean nothing were it not for Bijan Sheibani’s fluid, surehanded direction and some marvelous acting from the trio of players. The total effect, in a brief 90 minutes, is mesmerizing and deeply emotional.
The Brothers Size is part of a trilogy that McCraney wrote while a student at Yale School of Drama. We hope that he will present the other two plays during his tenure at the Geffen, so that we can relish the full sway of his vision and considerable talent.
“The Brothers Size,” Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024, geffenplayhouse.org, (310)-208-2028
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