A Son Poised to Say Goodbye, and Other Family Confrontations
Charles IsherwoodOctober 12, 2014: “I love the Lord, I ain’t shamed,” says Maxine, the loving mother and wife at the center of While I Yet Live, a loosely autobiographical play by the actor Billy Porter that opened on Sunday night at the Duke on 42nd Street. Portrayed with lovely grace and a spine of steel by S. Epatha Merkerson, Maxine finds her faith sorely tested in the course of Mr. Porter’s succulent family drama, presented by Primary Stages. As the play opens, Maxine is trading gossip about church doings while tending to her best friend, Eva (Sharon Washington), who’s suffering from cancer. They are upstairs in Maxine’s home, and she’s ignoring the braying calls from her Aunt Delores (Elain Graham) to come down and help prepare dinner. A further distraction explodes into the room when Maxine’s 17-year-old son, Calvin (Larry Powell), bursts in, bringing with him a handful of carefully coiffured wigs for Eva to choose from. There is also one atop his head, a sporty Afro that causes Maxine to smolder with anger and insist he remove it.
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