A Harlem Tale Full of Heart and Humor – “The Old Settler” at Bowie Community Theatre

A Review by Valerie J. Mikles

The first act is funny. The second act will break your heart. Bowie Community Theatre’s production of “The Old Settler” by John Henry Redwood is a crowd-pleaser, drawing laughs, protests, ohhs, ahhs, and woots from the audience. (I was fortunate to view the production with a rowdy full house on Sunday afternoon.) Although billed as a drama, the script is filled with rich, rolling humor to keep the audience laughing between moments of emotional turmoil. Directed by Lorraine Brooks, the four-character play is acted with a stunning sense of purpose and the cast delivers a powerful performance...Brooks’s staging draws the audience into some of the longer monologues and draws out the moments of intense waiting. A terrific sound design by Brooks implements bits of old radio broadcasts and fills the air with echoes of the era.

The set by Dan Lanvanga was beautifully simple showing the living room of Elizabeth’s Harlem apartment. I laughed at Elizabeth’s line about how rare it is to have a New York apartment with so many rooms because I’ve seen some of the closet-sized real estate in the city and was thinking the same thing. The director’s note in the program states that the pictures on set are photos of her family from their lives in Harlem, and I love that personal touch. I was also completely in love with the wallpaper—a cream-on-tan with a floral design. It gave such a wonderful feel to the set, especially during one of the sequences when the lights dimmed to blue and the walls seemed to glow.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the humor and constant moments of laughter that permeated this show and softened the moments between bittersweet and heart-wrenching conversations. The show captures the mantra that love is not always easy. It is something you work at and something you choose every day.

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