Looking back at my review of the original production, the play seems to have changed slightly. My original plot summary reads as follows: "The play takes place on one day in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, the day after it was bombed and four girls killed in 1963. Nina Simone and her pianist brother sneak into the church, hoping for inspiration to finish her song "Mississippi Goddam" that she's writing in response to the bombing and other tragedies. Soon the other three women file in, looking for shelter from the riots outside. Auntie is a working class woman on her way to work cleaning houses. Saffronia is a school teacher active in the women's Civil Rights marches and protests. Finally there's the prostitute Sweet Thing, with a chip on her shoulder and a knife in her hand. The four women discuss things political and personal, and find that despite their differences, they have much in common." That mostly still holds true for this version, except that we don't seem to be literally in the bombed out church. The play begins in a living room setting, with Nina at the piano, and at some point we are transported to the church, as if in a dream. In this version it feels like we're inside Nina's head as she writes the song, imagining these women, or perhaps remembering them from previous encounters, like a manifestation of her creative process.
Throughout the conversation, Nina continues to work on writing new songs and singing old ones with the other women, a capella or with simple piano accompaniment, or accompanying themselves with makeshift percussion instruments drawn from the rubble. The play is about the writing of "Mississippi Goddam," but it also draws inspiration from another Nina Simone song, "Four Women," with each of the characters in the play representing one of the archetypal Black women in the song, fleshing them out into full and complete characters and giving more of their background and history. The play culminates with the performance of this song, each of the women singing her verse, and it's a powerful and satisfying moment.
Despite being new to the play, Erin Willis gives a fantastic performance as she fully embodies Nina Simone in all her rage, sadness, determination, uncertainty, and power. She fits right in with Aimee K. Bryant, Thomasina Petrus, and Traci Shannon reprising their roles from the original production, all of them powerhouse singers and performers. They're dressed in '60s era clothing, but each one looks very different, with specific costume pieces that help tell us who each woman is (costume design by Jacourtney Mountain-Bluhm).
The set on Pillsbury's intimate stage transitions from a neat and cozy living room set, with couch, chairs, and piano, to revealing the ghost of the church - shadows of destroyed furniture behind a thin curtain, and the ashes of pews, a church window, and a falling down cross on one side, with rubble strewn around the edges of the stage. Nina reacts as each piece of the church is revealed, making the devastation more real. The sound of the bomb is devastating, and throughout the play we hear sounds from the turmoil going on outside the building. (Scenic design by William Boles, props design by Jenny Moeller, sound design by Peter Morrow, lighting design by Karin Olson.)
Nina Simone: Four Women continues at Pillsbury House + Theatre in South Minneapolis through September 27. And the cast is performing a concert at the Dakota on September 7 - info and tickets here.
