By DCist contributor Seth Rose

Reminds us of: An August Wilson script with a dash of West Side Story for flavor

Flop, Fine or Fringe-tastic? Fringe-tastic.

Writing a play based on personal experience is a careful balancing act. Make it too personal and you risk it confusing a diverse audience. Marcus Salley recognizes this dynamic, and in Cracked has crafted a deeply personal meditation on his grandfather that also ties in still-relevant ideas about black fatherhood and what it means to be a man.

Cracked tells a fairly simple story: Henry (played by Salley) is barely keeping his family together after his wife moves to New York for work. Their daughter Gale (Ashlee James) falls in love with “One Man Motorcycle Gang” Willie Bailey (Roody Labaze), an avatar of Salley’s real-life grandfather who eventually impregnates her. It isn’t much more than a star-crossed lovers scenario on the surface, but Salley’s performance elevates the show to heights it would not reach otherwise. His supporting actors do their jobs competently and faithfully—James in particular shines as Gale—but from the first second of his entrance, Salley’s Henry exudes an arresting stage presence. His strict fatherly presence comes across especially powerfully when he’s not speaking, but as the show progresses and his hold on the people close to him breaks down, he shifts from thoughtful vulnerability back into tyrant father mode without missing a beat.

Salley also directed the show, and although he doesn’t show quite as much talent in that field in comparison to his acting and writing, it can’t help but communicate that Cracked is his show in more than the literal sense. Through his guidance and talent, he turned a piece that could have easily amounted to not much more than a tired Romeo and Juliet riff into one of the hidden gems of Capital Fringe 2016.

Cracked is playing at the Logan Fringe Arts Space on July 16 at 2:45 p.m., July 22 at 6:15 p.m. and July 24 at 4 p.m.

See here for more of DCist’s Capital Fringe 2016 reviews.