In the Red and Brown Water

"Beyond the fact that it is sensational, the Fountain Theatre's production of "In the Red and Brown Water" by Tarell Alvin McCraney is important for two reasons: It introduces Los Angeles audiences to a dramatic poet in the process of discovering his singular voice and it shows how magnificently one of L.A.'s better small theaters can serve bold new talent."  Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times Theater Critic

Gamma Mu celebrated Black History Month at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood.  We saw In The Red and Brown Water.  A great play based on a simple theme with a unique presentation.  It is fascinating how the playwright weaves in the culture of the Yoruba people of West Africa.    Even the character's names take their significance from the Yoruba.

• Oya - Goddess of the Niger River, wind and storms.
• Elegba/Elegua deity of roads and crossroads, the messenger, trickster, shape shifter.
• Yemoja - Orisha of the oceans, mother goddess.
• Shango - Orisha of the thunderbolt god of fire and lightning.
• Ogun - deity of iron and metal work, of war.
• Shun - Orisha of the Shun River, the most beautiful of Shango's wives.
• Egungun - the collective spirit of the ancestors.
• Oshoosi - Orisha of the hunter the tracker, the wanderer.
• Oba - Orisha of marriage and domesticity.

We hosted a reception at the theatre before, during intermission and after the play, when the cast joined us for a "bit of the bubbly".