Undine (Natalie Venetia Belcon) and Hervé (Scott Voloshin) have a moment.
They say in the army they break you down, to build you back up again. That’s probably the best way to describe what happened in the Brooklyn Lyceum’s performance of Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; it is a story about a fall from grace of Undine, a premier African-American PR starlet. The bold narrator was ripped from her stealing ex Hervé, and had to return to her humble roots. Losing high-saddidy friends along the way, she was led back to a family who supposedly died in a fire (or that’s just the story she told others); she found most of them living their in-the-box security guard lives in Brooklyn, NY. The worst part wasn't the stories of who down the block had solved a math equation that made him genius, or her brother’s epic poem that will fail to do any damage while he’s alive; yet it was her grandmother’s addiction to heroin disguised as diabetes insulin shots that really ruptured Undine down to pieces.
When Grandma forced Undine to buy some heroin for her, and
Undine got caught by the authorities, she was sentenced to rehab, and that’s
where the true story begins. Undine must make the best out of the situation
that was given to her, the short end of the stick, and turn lemons into
lemonade. The biggest lemon? The unborn baby fathered by an ex who could have loved
her more dearly. Most of the people she met along the way pushed her through this
process, but not by making it any easier. There were her surprisingly
successful double-dutch childhood friends from around the way; an acquaintance
who she used to rub elbows with, now working at Duane Reade with an optimistic
attitude; her doctor, who was a little less than understanding; the Medicaid
secretary, who had the patients wait in line, for however long, only to wait in
line again; and the people in rehab, her pseudo-support group for a problem she
didn’t have; yet one member in particular caught Undine’s eye.
It was the love story between Undine and this suitor, Guy, that was the light
peering at the end of the tunnel; His purity brought Undine solace, and as their
love blossomed, her womb did, too. The end of the play was significant of a
blessing in disguise, a turn of events that almost made everything that
happened to the protagonist seem, bearable. --GB
Directed by Cynthia Babak
Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine, is playing in its
last weekend at the Brooklyn Lyceum Theatre, NY, on May 10, 11, 12, and 13.
Tickets.
