The full title of Pearl Cleage’s exuberant drama — “The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years” — is unabashedly outsized. It’s also utterly in the spirit of Cleage’s marvelous, outsized drama.
Directed by Lili-Anne Brown at the Goodman Theatre, the production is bursting at its seams with intrigue, romance and comedy. It is also a nuanced, fraught and incongruously hilarious exploration of class privilege, generational wealth and family betrayal.
Cleage’s drama is the glorious centerpiece of a citywide celebration of Cleage, and it’s a fitting nexus. There are belly laughs and more than a few emotional sniffles to be had as Cleage’s plot swirls around two Black families: the wealthy, aristocratic Dunbars at the apex of Montgomery, Alabama, society, and the working-class Campbell-Jacksons, whose relationship with the Dunbars is gradually clarified through Cleage’s pitch-perfect dialogue.
Initially, it seems that the biggest challenges facing imperious Dunbar matriarch Grace DuBose Dunbar (E. Faye Butler) lie with the centennial ball put on by the Nacirema Society, a social club for monied Black women of the Deep South. Grace’s debutante granddaughter Gracie (Demetra Dee) will officially enter society with the pending Nacirema Ball, an event that sets the stage for a rambunctious comedy of manners. But “Nacirema” (try spelling it backward) also has teeth and a thorny, pitched story about race, economic inequity and family.
Set in 1964 against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, “Nacirema” begins with Grace’s quest to ensure her granddaughter Gracie’s life (and ball gown) perfectly embody the core Nacirema values of honor, elegance and chastity.
But adhering to white-glove tradition turns out to be the least of doyenne Grace’s worries. From across town, working-class single mother Alpha Campbell-Jackson (a formidable Tyla Abercrumbie of “The Chi”) and her daughter Lillie (Felicia Oduh, believably giddy in love and stressed by the weight of familial expectations) come bearing secrets that will reshape both families for generations to follow.
The action alternates between the Dunbars’ opulent home (Arnel Sancianco’s lavish foyer/parlor/library will have you wanting to move in) and the Campbell-Jackson’s immaculate, pastel kitchen.
The Dunbar family is a de facto matriarchy, albeit in the shadow of Grace’s late husband, whose portrait and history loom large throughout. Like her imperious mother-in-law Grace, Gracie’s mother Marie (Sharriese Hamilton, a warm, bright presence throughout) is also a widow.
The only male around is the dreamy Bobby Green (Eric Gerard), son of longtime Dunbar family friend Catherine (Ora Jones), and presumed future husband of debutante Gracie.
Finally, Cleage throws a New York Times reporter into the mix: Janet Logan (an impossibly elegant Jaye Ladymore) may or may not be writing a hit piece on the Nacirema Society.
Cleage builds the network of relationships, each scene deftly revealing new truths and subtle details about the families, their histories and their dreams. Even Shariba Rivers’ silent maid is richly realized as she collects coats and dispenses sherry among her demanding employers and their guests.
Along the way, Cleage introduces secret letters, blackmail schemes and forbidden love affairs. Throughout, the hope and turmoil of the Civil Rights Movement roils, an undertow of imminent sweeping change.
Cleage’s text is dazzling, Brown’s ensemble equally so. This is a cast that embodies the depth and breadth of Chicago’s talent pool and that evokes the seminal ensemble work of shows like “August: Osage County.” Even when chaos has engulfed the Naciremans, the Goodman cast meshes with sparking synchronicity.
Butler’s Grace is the grounding force, her elitist entitlement coupled with a steely-eyed authority that makes people mind their manners. Like “Downton Abbey’s” inimitable Dowager Countess, Grace is the proverbial force to be reckoned with. It’s a part Butler was born to play.
As Grace’s friend Catherine, Jones continues making a decades-long case for herself as a maestro of physical comedy. Catherine is eternally flustered, particularly when matters involving money are at stake. The very word “money” is so distasteful to her she can barely say it out loud, one of many character traits Jones turns into comedic gold.
“Nacirema Society” is in some ways a throwback. It has the signature, rambunctious warmth of “You Can’t Take it With You” and the antic zaniness of “Arsenic and Old Lace.” But there’s far more than feel-good family drama and farcical shenanigans to Cleage’s work. Through cork-screwing plot twists set amid luxurious surroundings and navigated by a crew of unforgettable women, it’s a family portrait you’ll carry with you for a long time.
