The Breast of Times at Paul Robeson This Weekend

This weekend, an homage to mothers like none other is coming to the historic Paul Robeson Theater.

“Mama Juggs,” a one-woman play about breasts through the generations, will be performed by the multi-talented Rie Shontel on Friday and Saturday.

The actress, who hails from Oakland and currently works in North Carolina for the local NPR affiliate, said that her inspiration comes from the strong females figures in her life, starting with her great-grandmother.

“While I was breastfeeding in our housing project in Oakland my grandma would be sitting across the room singing about it!” Shontel said. “She was teaching me. She’d say, ‘OK, you’re doing this wrong, you’re doing this right. Now you’re killing him!’”

The experience turned out to be an artistic goldmine.

“My husband said instead of getting mad, write it down,” Shontel added.

And those notes from her early experiences became “Mama Juggs,” a play that features Shontel playing three African-American women struggling with breast cancer, (her mother) poverty, (her grandmother) and late puberty and breast-feeding (herself).

Interspersed through Shontel’s portrayals of the three women are actual breast-feeding songs sung by her great-grandmother, Suga Babe. 

Shontel said people really take a liking to the elderly character, and are often anxious to get on stage during the interactive portions of the show.

“It’s about a universal language of mothers — everyone’s got a mama,” she said. “Anyone who is looking to expand, and evolve will [like the play]. That’s what my family did, they did it in poverty, and they did it damn well.”

“Mama Juggs” at the Paul Robeson Theater, 54 Greene Ave. between Adelphi Street and Clermont Avenue, on April 22 and 23 starts at 8 p.m. Tickets $20.