A powerful and emotionally charged drama about abuse, identity, and the cycle of violence
Is God Is, a play written by Aleshea Harris (On Sugarland), debuted off-Broadway at Soho Rep in 2018. The play explores such themes as flawed morality, familial dysfunction, Black girl/woman issues and stereotypes, and patricide. It ran in the winter for five weeks and won 3 Obie awards (Playwriting for Aleshea Harris, Directing for Taibi Magar, and Performance for Alfie Fuller as Anaia and Dame-Jasmine Hughes as Racine). Two years earlier, it had won the coveted American Playwriting Foundation's Relentless Award. Accompanied by a $45,000 prize, which allowed Harris to stage readings all over the world. This emotional story is headed to theaters this week, distributed by Amazon MGM Studios.
Racine the Rough One (Kara Young; I Love Boosters) and her twin sister, Anaia the Quiet One (Mallori Johnson; Steal Away) grew up in the foster care system after their father, Monster (Sterling K. Brown; This Is Us) set fire to the girls' mother, Ruby (Vivica A. Fox; Kill Bill Vol. 1). Catching the girls in the flames, they became disfigured - Racine on her hand, arm and neck and Anaia on her face. One day, the girls receive a letter from their mother, whom they haven't seen in over 15 years. After driving thousands of miles, they arrive at her bedside, where she tells them to find their father and kill him. Suddenly, they are on a mission to find the man who disfigured them all those years ago.
Harris returns to the story to write the screenplay, and it shows. Her words are powerful and descriptive, and she breathes life into these characters, whether it is the twins, their mother, their father, or the handful of others who round out the story. However, she also rarely uses their names so as not to have the audience become emotionally attached to them, since most of them are not the type of people one would normally root for to come out on top.
Of course, the script wouldn't be nearly as effective if the actors weren't strong. Luckily, Young and Johnson are perfectly cast as the twins who are polar opposites, yet so similar. Young embodies the attitude to play a rough, take-no-prisoners character, while Johnson carries the weight of remaining mainly silent and timid in the face of adversity. Perhaps her physical outward appearance affected her emotional state; at least that is probably what Harris would want you to believe. Yet, it is Anaia's relationship with her sister and Racine's personality that ultimately leads to where the story ends.
Relegated to supporting actor roles, Brown and Fox, along with Janelle Monáe (Hidden Figures), Erika Alexander (Get Out), and Mykelti Williamson (Forrest Gump), round out the cast beautifully. Monáe portrays a woman of means, Alexander plays another woman the Monster left, and Williamson is the lawyer who got the monster off, only to be one of his victims. Interestingly, they all embody a sense of desperation at the hands of the Monster.
The dynamics between Racine and Anaia are central to the story, and these two actors have the right chemistry to not only portray sisters but also twins. They let the various messages of the play/film simmer just below the surface, only to bubble up on occasion. With a wonderful cast, script, and direction by Harris, and perfect locations, Is God Is shows what happens when all the pieces to the puzzle fit together perfectly.
As a commentary on abuse, familial dysfunction, and identity, Is God Is works while also reinforcing the idea that violence begets violence and that to rise above it, one must break the cycle.
Grade: B
