Can a lesson about American slavery and its legacy divert even as it disturbs? James Ijames thinks so, and the result is the disarmingly entitled play "TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever."
Set in the past, present and future of a Commonwealth of Virginia University, Ijames' full-length (105 minutes) and fully involving stage lesson takes the form of a vividly detailed presentation by student research assistant Sally. Complete with a flip chart and bell-signaled 'footnotes,' Sally's vivid lesson calls on her online 'class'—the theatergoers viewing Speak Easy Stage Company's forceful filmed production (in partnership with Boston Conservatory at Berklee, the source of the majority of the cast members)—to come to terms with their own ideas and assumptions about race, sexual harassment, freedom and equality.
Sally challenges her 'students' to examine not only Thomas Jefferson's enslavement—both physical and sexual—of Sally Heming but also the school dean's unrelenting efforts to establish an intimate and totally inappropriate relationship with her.
During her rich presentation, fellow black Beta Beta Epsilon sorority sisters Pam and Annette provide Greek chorus-like advice as well as personal reflections. Along the way, gay African-American activist Harold calls into question the slavery-connected history of the University and confronts the Jefferson-descended Dean about the latter's own feelings and views.
If you think this lesson is preachy or predictable, think again. Right from the start, Sally asks the audience "to consider what we've inherited from our ancestors" and announces that she needs "to tell it (her lesson) with my body." In fact, she enlists Pam and Annette from time to time in expressive full body cheers and dance moves that help bring her legacy and her sorority sisters' own inheritances to high energy life. Kudos to choreographer Kira Cowan Troilo for character-matching exuberance in the dance sequences.
Harold adds his own unique energy to the students' discontent with the University's slavery connections—especially its 1819 foundation by a slave holder—and TJ's very forward stance towards Sally. Repelled by framed images of white college leaders, the feisty activist twice pisses on the wall they cover—later even adding graffiti with a paint can. Not surprisingly, Harold comes to words with TJ—who insists that they are not peers and that the Dean deserves more respect. Their conflict adds real fire to Ijames' provocative play.
Eventually TJ'S conflict with himself becomes as fiery as Sally's dogged opposition to his advances. Ijames has the vulnerable dean actually strip down from a plantation era outfit to his briefs and wonder "Do I know what I'm doing?" Later still, TJ plaintively asks her "Why can't someone like me walk into the future with someone like you?" Jared Troilo gives a tour de force performance as initially cheery and ultimately perplexed and diffident TJ.
To his great credit, Troilo catches all of the dean's predatory qualities before finding his initially hidden sadness and insecurity. By contrast, Tah-Janay Shayone moves persuasively from defensiveness and uncertainty to strong resolve.
Rounding out strong performances—under the sharp direction of Pascale Florestal—are Jordan Pearson's brashly insightful Harold and Sadiyah Dyce Stephens and Dru Sky Berrian respectively as supportive Annette and Pam. Designer Rachel Padula-Shufelt captures period plantation era gowns. Aja M. Jackson's lighting evocatively catches the beauty of Sally's hopes for a future of true equality.
Playwright Ijames aims to lead audience members to a full exploration of their lives and legacies. "TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever" is a fine effort in that regard—one that should have an even greater impact in an eventual in-person performance at the Calderwood Pavilion.