I was back at the Lower Ossington Theatre main stage again last night, this time to see Andrea Scott’s Eating Pomegranates Naked, directed for the SummerWorks production by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu.
A group of 30-something friends unearth personal loss, sins of omission and secrets, and struggle with various crises of faith. Scott (Eli Ham) and Sera (Marci T House) navigate the cultural and religious differences that at times challenge their marriage as they struggle to have a baby, while Rushton (Awaovieyi Agie) and Anaar (Cherissa Richards) work out their lives as a new couple, and come to realize that they haven’t had a clear discussion on the baby question and may not be the match they thought they were. For all her tough-talking bravado and comparatively bohemian lifestyle, Cassidy (Susan A. Lock), the single gal in the group, longs for intimate connection and wonders whether a baby is in the cards for her. Connection, family – whether birth family or a chosen family of friends – and a desire to leave some sort of legacy are foremost in the minds of these characters.
Really nice work from this ensemble cast. House does a lovely job balancing Sera’s strength and vulnerability, assuredness and doubt; and Ham’s Scott is a good complement, the other side of Sera’s coin, bringing support and love, especially during the most fragile moments in their relationship. Agie brings a nice sense of cocky, but congenial, confidence to Rushton, a handsome and accomplished man who must come to terms with the fact that he may not be getting what he expected from his relationship with Anaar; and Richards rounds out Anaar’s pretty, dumb girl exterior with a deep longing for acceptance, fearful of rejection if she reveals herself. Lock is sharply funny as Cassidy, gradually revealing that, beneath all of Cassidy’s smart-ass quips, there lies a lack of confidence that she’ll be able to change her life for the better.
Eating Pomegranates Naked is life in all its loving, fighting, believing – and messy – glory. This is another play I had the pleasure to see in an earlier draft – in this case, as a reading at Alumnae Theatre Company’s New Ideas Festival 2012. During the Q&A that followed that reading, the audience learned that the title was inspired in part by friends of Scott, a couple who eat pomegranates naked for easy clean-up/stain avoidance – plus its colourful, erotic, and even biblical, reference (was an apple or a pomegranate that figured in Adam and Eve’s downfall?). In French, it’s “grenade,” a fitting word for the gasp-inducing emotional bombs that get dropped throughout the play. Revelations have the power to relieve or destroy relationships, and revealing oneself takes courage and can result in the discovery that what was wanted most, even as it slips through one’s fingers, is maybe not what was needed – or wanted – after all.
You have two more chances to see Eating Pomegranates Naked during its SummerWorks run at the Lower Ossington Theatre main space: tonight (Fri, Aug 16) at 10:00 p.m. and Sat, Aug 17 at 7:30 p.m. If you’re one of the first 25 audience members for this show, you may get lucky like I did last night and receive a gift bag with some tasty Cobs bake shop goodies.
life with more cowbell 