'Quindaro' offers look at regional history

By: Russ Simmons, theater reviewer

9 PARTS OF DESIRE

After a long and arduous effort, the Unicorn Theatre’s secondary performance space, The Jerome Stage, has finally opened. This 122-seat venue is adjacent to the company’s Main Stage, which will soon be undergoing renovation.

The first production is Heather Raffo’s “9 Parts of Desire,” a heartfelt look at contemporary Iraq through the eyes of nine women. Although it is a work of fiction, Raffo, the daughter of an Iraqi man and an American woman, found inspiration for her stories from interviews she conducted during visits to her father’s homeland.

The play is a series of unrelated monologues normally performed by one person. Here, director Cynthia Levin has chosen to divide the nine characters among three gifted actresses, Cheryl Weaver, Jennifer Aguilar and Andi Meyer.

These women relate their personal stories to us, the unseen interviewer. Among those we meet are an artist befriended by Saddam, a young girl enamored with Western pop music, an expatriate war supporter living in London, and a doctor desperately attempting to cope with the devastating challenges that the conflict has wrought.

Each actress ably exploits the play’s enlightening and poignant moments. One character, however, seems superfluous. Raffo has included a fictionalized version of herself, an American worried about her relatives back in Iraq. This perspective is a distraction that adds no insight to the piece.

While the three players are solid, it would have been great to see a single actress tackle the entire production. Spotlighting a tour de force performance could help make up for the fact that the play, due to its episodic nature, has no narrative drive.

But “9 Parts of Desire,” under Levin’s steady guidance, affords us a thoughtful insider’s look at a side of Iraq that we don’t get from the nightly news: the human side.

The play runs through March 2 at the Unicorn Theatre, 3828 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. Call (816) 531-PLAY.

QUINDARO

In a section of what is now Kansas City, Kan., once stood a thriving oasis of compassion called Quindaro. During its brief, Camelot-like moment in the 1850s, it stood as a beacon of hope for those who believed in the pursuit of equality.

The history of this ghost town comes to life in “Quindaro,” a production of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Theatre and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Now appearing at Union Station, this painstakingly researched play is the work of playwright Kathleen McGhee-Anderson and director Ricardo Khan.

Joining the UMKC student actors is Hollywood veteran Bill Cobbs (“A Night at the Museum”) in the role of Gibbons, our narrator. He relates the tale of a Kentucky slave named Mercy Heath (Toccarra Cash), who arrives in this watery spot on the Kansas side of the river to witness the birth of a dream.

Founded by abolitionists with land offered by the Wyandot tribe, Quindaro was a thriving place where American Indians, blacks and whites could work, own land and seek an education, all while living side by side. Black men were even allowed to vote. It became a major stop on the Underground Railroad.

Naturally, the ugly realities of the era prevented Quindaro from becoming the success that its founders had envisioned, but the play preserves and reveres their efforts.

Cobbs brings a weathered dignity to his role, and Cash is excellent as the strong-willed Mercy. Cassandra Schwanke has some nice moments as Nancy Quindaro Brown Guthrie, the American Indian woman whose tribal moniker (which literally means “bundle of sticks”) gave the town its name.

When the play concentrates on the events in Mercy’s life, it is quite compelling. McGhee-Anderson, in her efforts to make the play an exhaustive overview, sometimes lets the sweep of history overwhelm the characters. At times, “Quindaro” feels more like a documentary than a satisfying drama.

But as a celebration of a little-known part of our local history, “Quindaro” is an informative and honorable work.

“Quindaro” runs through Feb. 24 at the H&R Block City Stage in Union Station, 30 W. Pershing Road, Kansas City, Mo. Call (816) 235-6222.