Running: AMOK opens with a young woman soulfully singing to the silent, darkened room about her dreams for her life ahead as a mother. There’s hope for a unique perspective on motherhood here, in a play that dubs the task one of most life-changing experiences out there, for better or worse. Instead, Running: AMOK rehashes old adages and plots we’ve heard time and again, despite its whole-hearted efforts to offer something new.
Throughout the first act, singer LeShell (Quneice), writer Camille (Sudani Scott), and designer Nina (Teisha Marie) all tell the stories of their lives before their first children. Punctuated by songs with largely forgettable lyrics and backing by Garage Band beats, the stories echo those we’ve all heard before. Lyn Artrope and her comedic banter is a pleasant surprise as Camille’s mother, Bennie; she also delivers the most thought-provoking line of the show with ease: “I’m so happy to be a grandmother, but I’m so scared for that child that the same time,” she says to her successful 30-year-old daughter.
But the first act is but a simple set up for what’s ahead, as the second act finds the women coming together in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. All are frazzled by the trials of motherhood, and it seems there’s no answer to their troubles until — wait! — their savior arrives, in the form of mother/grandmother/wife/singer extraordinaire Mama Belle, played with sly attitude by Dionne. Through a series of songs, led by standouts Quneice and Dionne (whose talent just can’t save the lyricism that’s at work), superwoman Mama Belle helps the ladies realize they can be who they want to be, if they understand life with children will be different — not worse, just different. It’s an easy, contrived way out for playwright and director Khadijah Ali-Coleman — but it’s the lifeline she chooses for her ladies, and they take it. For a play that purports that motherhood has no handbook, it seems as if the Cliff’s Notes aren’t too tough to find.
Running: AMOK has three shows remaining at the Goethe Institut: Gallery on July 22, 24 and 25. For show times and ticket information, visit the Capital Fringe website.
