Power to the playwrights who can effortlessly weave together disparate themes and characters, something Ro Reddick manages deftly with Cold War Choir Practice, making its world premiere at Trinity Repertory Company.
In a gritty Syracuse roller-skating rink in the waning days of the Cold War, she crafts a satirical, genre-defying look at power – Ronald Reagan versus Mikhail Gorbachev, good versus evil – and racial disparities in a way that feels eerily cogent today and leaves audiences grappling with heavy considerations she’s tempered with riotous humor.
At the center is 10-year-old Meek, the only Black child in the Seedlings of Peace Choir, whose innocence is overshadowed by fears of world war. Her Christmas list, for example, includes a nuclear radiation detector to keep in the family’s fallout shelter. She’s navigating an uncertain world, memorizing lyrics like “the farmer and the businessman prosper in the west,” and telling others, “We use our voices to stop the bombs. You’re welcome!”
Life is upended when her Uncle Clay, the conservative deputy national security advisor, arrives at the home Meek shares with her father and grandmother, with Aunt Virgie, who is struggling from a mysterious ailment the audience learns is psychological deprogramming from a cult.
Suddenly, everyone is interested in the contents of the briefcase Clay plans to bring back to Washington with him for important meetings.– Virgie’s cult connections are interested. So is Meek’s Russian pen pal, who gifted her the See and Spell she wanted from Santa, then messaged her directions using its disembodied electronic voice.
Reddick seems to throw the kitchen sink of plot themes in her work. There is tension between the brothers as their outspoken mother intervenes. There are spies armed and willing to kill. And there are fun references and flashes of the 1980s that director Aileen Wen McGroddy sprinkles throughout.
McGroddy and scenic designer Michael McGarty also craft a unique stage using scaffolding to bring people outside and to hide a Big Brother-esque control center.
Stellar performances by Lucia Aremu as the immature but wise Meek, Jackie Davis as her no-nonsense grandmother, and Rebecca Gibel as Virgie, whose recovery is both emotional and physical, give tremendous life to this fever dream of a production.
Cold War Choir Practice seems challenging to explain, but the message is clear: Power is relative to the person who thinks they hold it. “Black power,” Clay tells his brother, a former Black Panther, is “just a slogan,” but even the meekest among us can claim it.
The show runs through Oct. 5 at Trinity, 201 Washington St., Providence. For tickets or more information, go to trinityrep.com.