'Mud, River, Stone' Gives Stagecrafters' Audience Something to Think About

Have you ever taken a vacation that went wrong in every way possible? “Mud, River, Stone,” playing now at The Stagecrafters theater, will make that vacation seem like a paradise getaway.

When Sarah and David Bradley, an African-American couple vacationing in Africa, take a wrong turn, they unknowingly enter a world racial animosity and civil conflict. After their car runs out of gas, the couple is forced to stay in a mysterious hotel. The exact location, as described in the playbill, is “Hotel Imperial, Africa… perhaps Mozambique, perhaps not.”

While the first act has its moments, the play moves slowly until, in the second act, the Bradleys and the rest of the hotel’s patrons are taken hostage by the desperate and downtrodden bellboy.

The play quickly turns from a dry, comedic look at bourgeois couple in the wilderness to an intense and thought-provoking dialogue about race, privilege and the struggles of modern-day Africa.

The play seems to be asking the question: who is the outsider? Is it the bellboy with a gun? The Western-educated native African, Ama Cyllah, who does missionary work? The affluent Americans with black skin, or perhaps, the white man who spent his entire life in Africa?

The latter, whose name is only given as Mr. Blake, is the show-stealer. A man of British decent, but born and raised in Africa, Blake and all of his actions are firmly planted in the gray area of morality. Played by Paul DiFerdinando, Blake is so pragmatic that you can’t tell if he is a character that you love to hate, or hate to love.

The play’s climactic ending is also brought to you courtesy of Mr. Blake, and it is a doozey.

If anything was going to draw your attention away from the John Cleese-like caustic charm of Blake, it would be the beautiful set design. The stage of the theater is transformed with authentically antique African luxury. Designed by Richard Stewart, and accented by a collection of African hunting trophies, lent to the theater by John and Jean Alsentzer, the set only adds more grace to the drama of the production.

The only drawback to “Mud, River, Stone,” is that playwright Lynn Nottage misses a key opportunity in the first moments of the play to set a realistic scene for the events to follow.

The Bradleys, played by Quisha Lawson and Christopher Gladstone Booth, tell the introductory details of their ordeal as if setting up the punch line to a joke at a dinner party.

If Nottage meant to make the Bradleys seem unaffected by their unfortunate adventure, it makes them infinitely less likeable, and sets audience members up with a negative opinion that affects the way they relate to the Bradleys, even when they show their vulnerability later in the play.

Despite this minor disappointment, which very well may be intentional, Nottage gives the play a cast of characters that are all deeply flawed. Some seem too naïve, others too hardened, and at different points in the play, all seem to feel a sense of superiority over their fellow captives.

Each of these characters represents a different view, or perhaps a different plague, on modern-day Africa. If you don’t come away with a few laughs, at the very least, you will come away with a lot to think about.

“Mud, River, Stone,” is playing at The Stagecrafters this weekend and next, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. and Sunday, 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the door, $16 online. Discounted tickets are available for students and groups.