‘Is God Is’ Opens at barebones productions (Fri., 2/24/23)

IS GOD IS (drama) by Aleshea Harris. barebones productions. February 24 – March 12.

What if film directors Sergio Leonne, Quentin Tarantino, and Roger Corman could back-channel their spirits into that master Greek myth maker, Sophocles, who would then write one of the greatest revenge stories ever––including lots of body disfigurements, blood, and gore––and that script time-travelled to the American stage as the story of a modern Black family in deep, disturbing, and, yet, hilarious, despair, would you buy a ticket? Oh, yes, you should.

Braddock’s inventive barebones productions will stage Is God Is, Alesha Harris’s major award-winning play. The story begins with two twin sisters, grossly scarred after being burned in a fire that killed their mother. But when they get a letter from the very same woman (whom they called God because, after all, she brought them life,) they rush to her hospital bed in the Dirty South. Her commandment is that the twins must kill their father (otherwise known as Man) who is living in the California desert with another family of his own. God is deadly serious. And then she dies. For the twins, there can be no greater moral dilemma. It is the stuff of Greek tragedy. It’s the character Clint Eastwood played in so many Spaghetti westerns. It’s the “aha moment” that Tarantino has withheld from you for a solid two hours. But it’s also the real ghost under the costume of a cartoon ghost hunted by Scooby-Doo.

Is God Is features a cast of eight, including director Javon Johnson (who returns to barebones productions after his star performance in The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity) and Pittsburgh’s prolific rock legend, Byron Nash, who will design the sound. barebones’ Artistic Director Patrick Jordan says, “I’m especially excited about Javon Johnson and… Byron brings an incredible energy and style to everything he does. The actors we’ve cast are mind-blowing. This one is going to be really special.”  Is God Is is presented at barebones production’s Bingo O’Malley Stage at 1211 Braddock Avenue in Braddock. (C.P.O.)

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