A slice of Harlem at the Segal

By Walter J. Lyng, October 24th, 2012

For its main stage production, the Black Theatre Workshop will this year present Djanet Sears' Harlem Duet in the Segal Center's Studio space from Wednesday, Oct. 24 to Sunday, Nov. 11. Inspired by Shakespeare's Othello, the play was first staged in 1997 and, although 15 years have gone by since then, director Mike Payette says that very little about the script needed to be altered to compensate. “This is post Obama; the Harlem of today which, oddly enough, isn't very different from the way Harlem was in 1997,” he says.
Working with Sears' source material, Payette says great care was taken so that the finished product would be reverential of this story.
“It's an awesome play so it's an extra challenge because you want to do it justice,” he says. “One of the exciting things is clarifying everything that Djanet has put together into something that can be followed and is still engaging. That's the challenge of any great piece of text.”
Set on the corner of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Boulevards, Harlem Duet unfolds through the eyes of Billie, Othello's first wife. “It's hypothetical in that it asks: If Othello was with a black woman before he was with Desdemona, what would that story be about?” says Payette.
Using the Shakespearean inspiration as a jumping-off point, the play addresses broader concerns dealing with the continuous struggle of the African American fight for equal justice. The play also moves through time, examining the Harlem renaissance of the late 1920s and goes as far back as the period soon after the Emancipation Proclamation in the 1860s.
The task of set design for the ambitious work fell upon Ana Cappelluto, for whom Payette has nothing but good things to say.
“She's created this awesome design that blends the feel and the mood that Segal Studio has to offer,” he says. “Going along with the Shakespeare theme, it's going to be the first play in recent history where BTW will be using a three-sided stage. It heightens the theatricality of the play.”
Although Payette has directed before, this will be his first go at a BTW main stage production. He says that its staging at the Segal, however, will be very comfortable for him.
“We're rehearsing at BTW but I think the transition into the Segal is going to be a fairly easy one,” he says. “Fortunately for me, and I would say even more fortunate for the BTW, this is my third show at the Segal this season, so the space is acting kind of as a second home to me. I feel as if I should set up a cot in the studio.”
The production features Lucinda Davis in the lead role of Billie, and regular theatre-goers may well recognize her from her recent roles in Doubt and Intimate Apparel at the Centaur. Othello, meanwhile, is played by Dave LaPommeray. 
For more information, visit www.blacktheatreworkshop.ca