Obie Award-winning satire Fabulation presented by PAD

Sophomores Ari Scott and Allison Reed in Lynn Nottage’s sharp-eyed satire Fabulation. Photo by David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services. Download high-res version.

“There is no greater crime than abandoning your history.”

So learns Undine, a hard-charging Manhattan social climber who is forced back to Brooklyn in Fabulation, Lynn Nottage’s Obie Award-winning satire of the African-American bourgeoisie.

Washington University’s Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will present Nottage’s sharp-eyed comedy Thursday through Sunday, March 25-28, in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

Performances will begin at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 25, 26 and 27; and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 27 and 28. The A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. Tickets are $15, or $10 for students, seniors and Washington University faculty and staff, and are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office and all MetroTix outlets.

For more information, call (314) 935-6543.

Fabulation

Subtitled The Re-Education of Undine, Fabulation centers on a self-made public relations diva who organizes celebrity parties and otherwise caters “to the vanity and confusion of the African-American nouveau riche elite.” Yet Undine’s world comes crashing down when Herve, her handsome Argentine husband, absconds with her savings, leaving her pregnant and penniless. With nowhere else to go, Undine returns to her childhood home, the Walt Whitman housing project in Brooklyn, and rejoins the working-class family she abandoned 14 years before.

“Fabulation is a wonderful cautionary tale about a fall from grace,” says William Whitaker, senior lecturer in PAD, who directs the cast of 10. “Undine is wealthy and successful and at the top of her game. And then suddenly she has nothing and must fight to reclaim her identity.

“Nottage is fearless about tweaking African-American stereotypes,” Whitaker says. “Undine’s mother, father and brother are all security guards, and she’s constantly needling them for buying lottery tickets or, in the case of her brother, for talking about the epic rap poem that he’s going to write one day.”

Meanwhile, Undine’s sweet old grandmother has become addicted to heroin. Desperate for a fix, she begs Undine to act as her buyer.

“Undine agrees, gets arrested and winds up in jail,” Whitaker says. “The judge orders her into a support group, where nobody believes that she doesn’t have a drug problem. Finally, just to get through it, she makes up a Percodan addiction.

“The play is fast and edgy and Nottage has a quick, biting sense of humor,” Whitaker says. “She’s merciless towards affectation or pretense of any kind.

“And yet, even as Undine’s life unravels, we see the steadfastness of her parents’ love,” Whitaker says. “We see how family has a way of converging around us, helping us to recover our true selves.”

Cast and Crew

The cast is led by sophomore Allison Reed as Undine, with sophomore Malcolm Foley as Flow and junior Chris Kammerer as both the smooth-talking Herve and as Guy, the former addict Undine begins seeing after her return to Brooklyn. Also starring are junior DeMarco Mitchener and sophomore Diamond Skinner as Undine’s parents, and sophomore Carissa Ferguson as both her grandmother and her doctor.

Sophomore Desiree Thomas is Stephie, Undine’s long-suffering assistant. Sophomore Ari Scott plays Richard, the accountant who delivers the bad news about her husband and finances. Rounding out the cast are sophomores Erica Munoz-Fitch and Sasha Diamond in a variety of ensemble roles.

The spare set, which seamlessly transforms from sleek corporate granite to poured government concrete, is designed by senior Nora Palitz. Costumes and lighting are by senior Ellen Minch and junior Aric Skurdal, respectively. Props are by juniors Matthew Rosenthal and Erika Gould. Stage manager is sophomore Elana Nemitoff.

Lynn Nottage

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Nottage graduated from Brown University and the Yale School of Drama and spent four years working for Amnesty International before becoming a full-time playwright. Her other works include Crumbs From the Table of Joy (1995), Mud, River, Stone (1998), Las Meninas (2002) and Intimate Apparel (2003).

Nottage won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Ruined, which explores the plight of African women amidst the brutal civil war in the Congo. Additional honors include a 2007 fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, popularly known as the “Genius Award.”