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‘Sugar’ offers the stories, shocks of life with diabetes

Theater Review

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 15, 2012|By Jeffrey Gantz

(Page 3 of 3)

Now they’re working together on “Sugar.’’ McCauley characterizes the piece as “part storytelling, part enactment, part narrative, part movement piece, part memory play. Very rhythmic.’’ And then there’s the contribution of pianist Chauncey Moore, from the experimental group Mission, who plays throughout “Sugar.’’ Does he improvise? No, but it started out that way, Shea and McCauley agree. Moore, they say, listened to what McCauley was saying and improvised from that.

Shea notes that “Sugar’’ is “as much about race as it is about diabetes. Because Robbie also explores the history of sugar cane, and the sugar plantations, and the idea of being slaves to sugar.’’ McCauley concurs: “For me it’s as much about the African-American experience as it is about the diabetic experience.’’

“Until the first insulin shock,’’ says McCauley, “it’s very narrative, with my life as a child in Georgia, and chronological, my life in D.C., my life in New York, my marriage, my degree, my acting career, ‘For Colored Girls.’ ’’

Shea describes this first half as “Chattin’ it up with Robbie.’’ “And then, in a hotel room in Ohio,’’ McCauley says, “wham! Insulin shock. The first half is much more storytelling, and the second half is much more performance art.’’