Sentimental, Stirring ‘Old Settler’

Imagine August Wilson writing for TV, and you’ll get a sense of “The Old Settler,” John Henry Redwood’s tale set in 1943 of two middle-aged sisters who take a handsome young border into their Harlem apartment. The young man has trekked to Harlem in search of a lost love, but he finds himself drawn to one of the sisters. The play strives to be an intricate drama of sexual attraction, a depiction of racial tension in the world outside, and a broad comedy that is clearly a cousin to sitcom.

When the young man falls in love and dons an all-wrong, fire engine-red suit, the audience whoops out loud in anticipation of the sisters’ disapproval. First comes the expected punch line: “You look like a runaway from a minstrel show.” Yet the disapproval, when it comes, is both layered and real. In “The Old Settler,” you may feel yourself shuttling between Chekhov and “Cheers.”

Redwood is clearly influenced by the majestic history plays of Wilson, and has acted in those plays both on Broadway and in regional theaters. Redwood’s writing has warmth and humor but is far more sentimental than Wilson’s, and his plot follows a predictable course. Nevertheless, as acted by the wonderful CCH Pounder and a fine cast at the Pasadena Playhouse, “The Old Settler” is an entertaining evening of theater.

Director Sheldon Epps keeps one eye on the integrity of his performers and another steady on audience gratification, which is exactly right for this play. Though the premise takes too long to unfold, its payoff is quite satisfying.

When Elizabeth Borny--as embodied by Pounder--is being magnanimous, you can forgive this play anything. Elizabeth has a way of fixing enormous eyes on another person as if she were boring into their souls.

But, in fact, Elizabeth insists that the recipient of her gaze see the depth of her own feeling, and that is the brilliance of Pounder’s performance. Very quickly in the long evening, we come to care deeply for this woman who has somehow remained unattached despite this powerful life force we feel inside her gaze. And, in the play’s lovely and understated final moments, Pounder reveals the full grace of Elizabeth’s nature.

Elizabeth is a woman of a certain age, living not just in Harlem, but in fabled Harlem. Gary Wissmann has designed the set so that her apartment seems to exist at the precise epicenter of where the Apollo, the Savoy and the Cotton Club meet. She lives there with her sister Quilly (Jenifer Lewis) in an uneasy truce. Quilly has done Elizabeth some wrong, and anyone who has ever seen a play will guess that Quilly stole her sister’s man at some previous date, though the specific facts don’t emerge until well into Act 2.

But the sisters are loving and basically good through and through, though Quilly is a world-class brat. Lewis is effortless as a regal woman with an awesome pout, and she is very funny whenever she picks up the telephone and chews out the motor-mouth with whom they share a party line. This is especially funny when Quilly doesn’t actually need to use the telephone. Quilly is much less snippy when she changes out of her swank white dress and into the uniform she wears to clean the house of “my white woman.” Then she looks weary and smaller, and we can just imagine the common insults that fuel her queenly tirades.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, is plainer, less grand, more good. Her kindness catches the eye of their motherless border, who has the unusual name of Husband Witherspoon (the appealing Christopher B. Duncan). Husband is searching for a young woman named Lou Bessie (Salli Richardson), who has changed her name to Charlemagne. It’s Lou Bessie (as Elizabeth insists on calling her) who explains the play’s title to us, several times too many. “Old settler” is her name for Elizabeth, a name she claims to have heard someone else use, the name for a spinster with no prospects.

Lou Bessie is jealous at Husband’s growing attraction to Elizabeth. But jealousy alone cannot explain her unrelenting nastiness; she’s as mean as a nuclear terrorist in an action movie. Why Husband is drawn to her is confusing. But both Lou Bessie and Husband do not exist as full and separate entities but rather as a showcase for the humanity of Elizabeth.

When the difficulties of the world outside the apartment intrude into the action, it’s usually by way of speeches. Husband meets the young Malcolm X (when he was called Detroit Red) and makes one speech on the status of the black man in the military that comes out of nowhere.

But when Quilly details for her sister the treatment and dignity of Negros packed into third-class railroad cars while whites ride in relative comfort, her outrage is rousing and organic. Quilly’s speech gives “The Old Settler” a momentary claim to true August Wilson territory, to something more than enjoyable soap opera.

* “The Old Settler,” Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends June 21. $13.50-$42.50. (800) 233-3123. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

CCH Pounder: Elizabeth Borny

Jenifer Lewis: Quilly McGrath

Christopher B. Duncan: Husband Witherspoon

Salli Richardson: Lou Bessie Preston

A Pasadena Playhouse production. By John Henry Redwood. Directed by Sheldon Epps. Sets Gary Wissmann . Lights Michael Gilliam. Costumes Zoe DuFour. Sound Jon Gottlieb. Production stage manager Jill Johnson Gold. Stage manager Lea Chazin.