A Long Way From Home @ the Sargent Theater at the American Theater of Actors, NYC
Review by Nick Thomas.

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to see A Lesson in Blood by Anne L. Thompson-Scretching at the ATA, the overall production of that performance was terrific and so with that in mind I was looking forward to seeing the second part of her The Blood Trilogy, A Long Way From Home.

Set Brownsville Brooklyn 1965, a time that was under the shadow of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, the stage is set for a tumultuous and dramatic night of theater. What I love about playwright Anne L. Thompson-Scretching’s work is her use of language, she has a wonderful way of capturing the way real people talk and it helps set the tone for us in the audience, that you are watching real people in their living room and not actors on a stage.

Whereas in A Lesson in Blood the cast was able to find the ebbs and flows of her language, discovering and using different cadences, in A Long Way From Home they did not. And to my dismay the entire first act was just people yelling at each other. It seemed like every choice that an actor made was to yell and scream their lines, to a point where it felt like a white noise machine playing raised voices that washed over the audience. I’m happy to add that the second act did improve and there were some more nuanced moments scattered through the arguments.

All that being said, Rommell Sermone as Chester Taylor, was an absolute stand out and gave a wonderfully grounded performance, especially in the second act where his character mask comes down and we see the vulnerability beneath. And I have to give a shout out to Laquan Hailey, whose first entrance as Willie Taylor was exceptional, without saying a word he told us all we needed to know about his character, a joy to watch.

I wish the set had been a little more inventive, it was a mirror image of what I saw earlier in the year for A Lesson in Blood, and there felt like moments where the directing could have been more focused. In the first act especially the actors just seemed to wander backwards and forwards across the stage without any clear intentions, or as Uta Hagen would say no destination.

All in all, I enjoyed this show, because beneath it all was terrific writing and an enthralling story. I hope to hear that the third part of the trilogy, Home is Sweet Sorrow, is coming soon. I can’t wait to see it.