We Review: White White Black Stork @ ACT

ACT says White White Black Stork (through April 6, tickets: $15-$55) is a "Romeo and Juliet" story, but that's stretching it. This play says more about what people will do to survive than what they will die for. It's sometimes dazzling, sometimes stark. Pitchers hanging in mid-air disburse surprising contents, characters whirl around a central tree shouting epiphanies, and a courtroom scene pitilessly exposes two families' shame and suffering.

Seeing it is oddly like watching a engrossing foreign movie--and not just because of the supratitles above the stage. A score by Aziza Sadykova, voice-over narration, and live sound effects (echoes heighten outcries) add to the immersion you get from high production value. And though the story about a boy growing up gay in a sexually repressive society isn't all that unfamiliar a scenario, the familial haggling over bride-price and discussions of the finer points of Sharia law are.

Luckily, ACT's audience is made up of precisely the kind of people who watch foreign movies and enjoy them; they gave an opening night ovation to the visiting Ilkhom Theatre Company, from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. They may have also been applauding there simply being an Ilkhom Theatre Company; the founder, Mark Weil, was killed, or assassinated, last September. Some believe Weil paid with his life for shows such as White White Black Stork.

The play, based on a novel (or unfinished manuscript, depending on which internet source you believe) by 19th-century Uzbek writer Abdulla Kadyri, begins with the turn-of-the-century births of a Sufi Muslim boy, Makhzum, and girl, Makhichehra, in the old city of Tashkent. As they grow up, we see that Makhzum is both gay and a poet, and so is a very square peg with extremely round cultural roles to try to fit into. (Honestly, we didn't really understand Makhzum's fascination with storks, outside of his sense of his "black stork" status.) Makhichehra, for her part, commits the mistake of falling in love on her own when arranged marriages are still the rage. You can imagine that this doesn't turn out well; still, we felt short-changed by the slapdash drama of the last few minutes, after so much measured unfolding.

Video trailer after the jump.

The Ilkhom Theatre Company’s production of White White Black Stork at ACT; Makhichehra: Nigora Karimbaeva, Makhzum: Said Khudaibergenov. Photo: Vitaly Evdokimov.