Theater review: ‘Trouble in Mind’ a serious, socially minded drama at Hartford Stage

“Trouble in Mind” is a classic Black drama of the 1950s that still resonates strongly today.

Alice Childress’ “Wine in the Wilderness” and “Wedding Band” may have made it into more anthologies, but “Trouble in Mind” is a play of hers that needs to be seen as much as it needs to be read. Hartford Stage is providing a smashing production through June 18 that lets you see the drama in all its layered, nuanced and highly theatrical glory.

The show builds and deepens, changing moods and styles as it shifts into sober discussions (and unspoken examples) of racism, sexism and “mainstream” cultural expectations. As the performers debate what it means to “act the truth,” they uncover vast differences in how those truths are upheld in the real world.

A show about speaking out while being shut down can be difficult to watch, but Childress adds humor, warmth and lively action to the conversation. The playwright famously rewrote “Trouble in Mind” several times, once under duress when its producers wanted to soften its ending for a transfer to Broadway after a successful off-Broadway run in the mid-1950s, then in later decades because she wanted to strengthen its message of empowerment and integrity through speaking the truth.

Hartford Stage takes on ‘Trouble in Mind,’ a classic Black drama with a troubled history

This is one of those plays that fake you out for several scenes, making you think it’s a light comedy full of fun stereotypes. Once it has sucked you in, it gets heavy. It’s a backstage story about actors preparing for a new Broadway drama. There’s the tyrannical director, a couple of young adults making their Broadway debuts and several seasoned performers who collectively cover the emotional spectrum of professional, jaded, vain and many other clichés commonly applied to theater actors.

The most sensible and forthright of the seasoned performers in the show-within-a-show is Wiletta, who’s had to play a lot of mothers and maids in her long career and begins to question how those roles were written. The way she stands up to the director while many of her castmates are trying not to rock the boat or be labeled troublemakers is compelling, visceral theater.

Heather Alicia Simms has total control of the role of Wiletta and anchors the drama easily, but “Trouble in Mind” is the kind of play that rises or falls based on the skill of its entire ensemble, not one actor. Yes, some of the supporting players barely need to shed their stereotypes, but their consistency is critical. It’s a big balancing act for everyone, especially if they want the message to be heard loud and clear: Listen to others. Respect others. Learn from others. Everyone has their own truth.

After Simms, the actor with the toughest path from the end of the first act to the end of the play is John Bambery as the infuriatingly passive-aggressive director Al Manners, who insists you call him “Al” and be his friend but will decimate you with withering insults if you bring him the wrong breakfast pastry.

Bambery is able to get laughs from this know-it-all character while also making him spine-chillingly creepy. When the ingenue Judy Sears (whose amusing journey from nervous novice from Bridgeport to confident Broadway starlet is neatly navigated by Sarah Lydden) makes what Bambery thinks is a wrong stage move — she’s actually just hanging up her sweater before getting started — he brusquely grabs her, squires her around the stage barking out the definitions of “stage right,” “stage left” and so on, telegraphing his impatience and exasperation throughout her humiliation.

“Trouble in Mind” has four Black actors. Beside Wiletta there is old-school thespian Sheldon Forrester (Michael Rogers); Millie Davis (Chelsea Lee Williams), who’s aging gracefully but frustrated with the lack of roles being offered her; and Henry, the young man playing Wiletta’s son in the play (Sideeq Heard).

There are also five white actors. Manners the director is the oldest, most unapologetically racist of the white actors; Bill O’Wray, who isn’t even in the first act but opens the second act rehearsing a long fiery speech that has undercurrents of the same way-things-are attitude that O’Wray has offstage, avoids contact with Black castmates. James Joseph O’Neill makes O’Wray’s bluster particularly disturbing by showing how comfortable he is around the director and white castmates. Henry, the adorably forgetful doorman who keeps revealing that he’s 78 years old, provides a bridge of empathy and sentimentality among all the tense confrontations. He stands mostly outside the turmoil. Not so lucky is the director’s assistant Eddie (Adam Langton), yet one more aggrieved powerless onlooker in the rehearsal room.

Yale’s Christopher Betts to direct two shows at Hartford Stage under local fellowship supporting Black artists

“Trouble in Mind” director Christopher Betts brings the same sense of order and clarity to “Trouble in Mind” as he brought to “Choir Boy.” He likes to spread the actors widely around the stage area, giving them their own turf as well as their own strong identities. He also cares deeply about entertainment value. He made sure “Choir Boy” had an impressive musical quality, and with “Trouble in Mind.” he kicks up the melodrama and the comedy while gradually revealing the deeper meaning of the play.

“Trouble in Mind” director Christopher Betts is the inaugural recipient of the Joyce C. Willis fellowship at Hartford Stage, a grant program designed to give exceptional Black artists the opportunity to work at major Hartford arts institutions. This is the first of two shows Betts will directing at the theater; the other is Katori Hall’s “The Hot Wing King” in February. He made waves in Connecticut theater when he helmed a beautiful production of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “Choir Boy” at the Yale Repertory Theatre while he was still a student at Yale’s Geffen School of Drama.

This is a metadrama that also earns big laughs and might also evoke tears. It draws you in with jokes and jabs, then challenges you with long arguments that feel like real-life discussions. Wiletta is the center “Trouble in Mind” revolves around, but this is a play and a production that shows you what’s wrong with society by making you see that society.

“Trouble in Mind” by Alice Childress, directed by Christopher Betts, runs through June 18 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. with added Saturday matinees at 2 p.m. on June 10 and 17. The June 14 performance is at 2 p.m. rather than 8 p.m. $30-$100. hartfordstage.org.