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If you’ve ever been to a poetry slam, you’ve tasted how that art form can inspire people. Despite the connotations of its name, a slam is often a relentlessly positive event in which writers bare their souls and talents and are rewarded with the support of their peers.
Poetry is at the center of “Locomotion,” as it’s the avenue a boy uses to help make his way through a very difficult time of his life. Author Jacqueline Woodson has adapted her 2003 free-verse novel into a play currently on stage at Children’s Theatre Company, and it has much to recommend it.
For one thing, we don’t see nearly enough shows with a young African-American male as protagonist. Nor do our theaters often make room for a story about a child finding tools to help him process a major trauma, or give a sense of what life in foster care can be like. Top it off with a message of the benefits of artistic expression, and it may sound like an inspiring experience.
However, Children’s Theatre’s production of “Locomotion” has a pace and energy level akin to the opposite of a poetry slam. While only 75 minutes long, it would probably be more successful if closer to an hour. And I don’t mean cutting any text, for there’s nothing extraneous in Woodson’s script.
It’s just directed by Talvin Wilks at such a slow tempo, its conflicts simmering at such a low temperature, that I could only sigh at the missed opportunity to get young theatergoers excited about expressing themselves through poetry.
The story plays out on a Maruti Evans set striped with the lines of a composition notebook and bearing the imaginative projections of Kathy Maxwell, here incorporating film of fidgeting feet in a classroom, there turning the door to a fire escape into an expansive portal to the outside world. Lonnie has entered foster care, and flashbacks gradually bring us in touch with the tragedy that’s transformed his life.
With the help of a supportive teacher, he begins to find his voice as a poet, even coaxing his reluctant friend, Enrique, into experimenting with the art form. When Enrique sets a Langston Hughes poem to a hip-hop beat, it made me long for more of that — with an extra dash of youthful energy.
I certainly can’t fault the performers, who do a uniformly fine job of creating very believable characters. Junie Edwards makes for an engaging Lonnie, our budding young writer, while Ellis Dossavi and Mollie Allen complement him well as his best friend and younger sister. Meanwhile, Charla Marie Bailey creates three distinctly different women in Lonnie’s life, sometimes morphing in astoundingly fast fashion.
But it’s Darrick Mosley as Lonnie’s father who inspired me to imagine what a different show this might be if the other actors could match his energy level. His conversations with Lonnie have such a palpable warmth and affection that I found myself wishing for more scenes with the two together.
Yet there’s not enough motion or emotion in “Locomotion,” the story too often sagging beneath the ponderous staging. Despite the premise of a life being potentially saved by art, it never bears the urgency of a life or death situation. If a parent wishes to open a child’s mind and heart to the wonders of poetry, a homemade slam might be the better option.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.
“Locomotion”
When: Through March 5
Where: Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis
Tickets: $74-$15, available at 612-874-0400 or childrenstheatre.org
Capsule: This plea for poetry’s place in healing seldom sets off sparks.
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