Ask any interior designer: A piano in the middle of the living room begs to be played. But in playwright Colman Domingo’s “DOT,” which Blackfriars Theatre stages through Dec. 29, the instrument in the middle of the set remains untouched for nearly two acts. Who, if anyone in the West Philadelphia home where the story unfolds, will play it? And when?
The answer arrives with plenty of emotional urgency near the play’s end. It’s a Christmas tale, so the musical resolution provides a safe harbor after a stretch of ugly family bickering. But as Domingo writes in the play’s notes, “No one in this play is deliberately mean or callous.”
That’s a handy bit of guidance for a comedy-drama, especially one with a plot like “DOT.” Here’s the scene: a matriarch with dementia, or maybe it’s Alzheimer’s — the characters conflate them throughout — and her three offspring who process that diagnosis quite differently.
Lawyer Shelly (Erica Griffin), the de facto leader, seizes control of her mother’s care, but is in over her head. Sensitive middle child Donnie (Carrington Reynolds), who ends up “tinkling” the ivories near the end, is riddled with anxiety, partly thanks to marital problems with his husband, Adam (Adam Kilgore). And the youngest, YouTube sensation Averie (Yakira Capri Coleman), presents as immature even as she boasts the requisite amount of emotional intelligence to maneuver the situation.
Blackfriars’s production works because it makes great use of its intimate space, transforming the theater into the family living room. The audience feels at home on the couch with these people as they endure their hardest crucible yet. The marvelous scenic design by Allen Wright Shannon — yellow wallpaper, a rotary phone and a gnome-shaped cookie jar — captures both the coziness of the moment and the frustration of being stuck in the past, much like the characters themselves.
As directed by gifted comedic improviser Eno Okung, “DOT” fully taps into familiar family rhythms. Griffin, as eldest daughter Shelly, does incredible work establishing both the story’s big beats and its dramatic stakes. A darkly comedic highlight arrives early, when she sends Dotty to bed at just after 10 a.m. simply to get some peace and quiet.
As Dotty, Malcolm brings gravitas. The actor joined the cast as a last-minute replacement with only four days of rehearsals left; as such, Malcolm spent opening night with a script in her hand. If there were any hiccups due to the urgent change, they added to the atmosphere of Dotty’s deteriorating state. The book didn’t distract, though a few more run-throughs would have helped tighten up some pauses that felt unnaturally prolonged. (Luckily, “DOT” is up until the end of the month.)
The rhythm issues aren’t entirely on the cast. Domingo is a gifted performer (indeed, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor earlier this year), though the tonal shifts he writes into his play are difficult to navigate. So are the empty spaces he leaves to punctuate scenes that are genuinely funny, if stark.
These jumps aren’t necessarily pulled off successfully — near the end of act one, Griffin and Reynolds’s playful sibling catch-up at the kitchen table explodes into raw emotion as reality of Dot’s condition sets in, creating an odd lull. Then, Coleman exuberantly bursts into the house like a glammed-up Kramer on “Seinfeld” and resuscitates the scene.
Fortunately those moments do not derail the thrust of the show, which is the drama of these folks dealing with circumstances they are simply not equipped to handle, both emotionally and financially.
That’s because “DOT” isn’t about Christmas or music or even the piano itself. It’s about family and the idea of home and how both concepts — complicated and thorny — evolve over time. There’s plenty to glom onto: racial differences, gentrification, an unwanted pregnancy and a midlife crisis all get oxygen. The conversational menu is just like being back home for Christmas.
Above all, “DOT” is a reminder that despite all that change, we know enough to gather around and sing a song during the holidays. We might be angry or broke or in cognitive decline, but we’re still civilized. Even if the foundation’s crumbling, the piano’s somehow still in tune.
“DOT” runs through Dec. 29 at Blackfriars Theatre. Ticket info here.
Patrick Hosken is an arts reporter at CITY. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
