Apologies from EncoreMichigan that we did not get to this terrific production until the last weekend of the run.

DETROIT,MI–Blues for an Alabama Sky is set in early 1930s Harlem, during the Depression and before Prohibition was repealed. The strength of the taut story, penned by Pearl Cleage 30 years ago, is that it seems to check every box of relevance in 2024 America.

It is a soul-stirring, unsettling, thought provoking play that had this reviewer and his partner still talking about the messages, issues and plot-points, not to mention the superb writing, days after we saw it. A playwright can hardly ask for anything more from their work.

The play revolves around the lives of five people whose paths intersect in unexpected ways, weaving a tapestry of friendship, love, and loss. At the center of this ensemble is Angel Allen (Mildred Victoria Penman), a spirited yet vulnerable nightclub singer whose dreams of stardom clash with the harsh realities of poverty and prejudice. Out of necessity, she is forced to live with her best friend, Guy (Izaya Spencer), a gay costume designer struggling to make a living like everyone else in the Depression and enduring the prejudice among his neighbors over his homosexuality.

Guy’s neighbor, Delia (Shaunie Lewis ), is a disciple of Margaret Sanger’s Planned Parenthood movement. Sam (Henri Franklin) is a doctor in the community, tirelessly delivering babies and tending to the needs of mostly low-income black residents, but with a taste for jazz and the nightlife, which is how he comes to be such close friends with Angel and Guy. Then there is Leland (Jesse Boyd-Wlliams), who comes to Harlem from Alabama, helps Guy get Angel home after a night of drinking, and then sets his eyes and heart on her.

The play’s most compelling aspects is its exploration of themes such as race, gender, and sexuality, all against the backdrop of a society grappling with economic hardship and political unrest. Through nuanced dialogue and thought-provoking scenarios, Blues for an Alabama Sky confronts the prejudices and injustices of its time while offering glimpses of hope and resilience in the face of adversity.

The unmistakable relevance of the play in 2024 comes from the story within the story regarding abortion rights and even a woman’s right to birth control. These were burning issues in 1931 Harlem. It is nothing short of a tragic miracle of humanity that these debates are still raging nearly 100 years later.

Make no mistake, though, playwright Cleage does not have an obvious agenda here to come down one side or another. Her agenda is to make us think, see all sides of the issue and debate, and to keep us talking. In that she succeeds.

The daughter of a minister, and the product of Detroit Public Schools, Cleage is especially deft at writing about the clash and conflicts between church people and those who are not, and between Northern black people and those who came North from more conservative, church-centered Southern states like Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.

On the subject and issue and of abortion, Cleage’s characters illuminate an unmistakable truth that the circumstances, conditions, backgrounds, plights and needs of individuals are too diverse and complex for us to so easily pass judgments about who is good and bad, right and wrong. When churches or the government (perhaps too closely aligned in some quarters of the country) try to pass laws that attempt to crowd every person of every stripe and circumstance into the same punitive box, it will end in tragedies and repeating patterns of misery.

There are no clear winners in the story when it comes to the question of a woman’s right to choose. There is only light shone on everyone impacted by the issue. And even when one character seems to have performed a particularly heinous act, Cleage has given us enough backstory of that character to have understanding, and dare we say empathy, for the characters.

The Detroit Public Theatre’s production is superb. The set and props design by Monika Essen splits the stage between Guy’s small apartment, the hallway between his flat and that of Delia, and Delia’s apartment. The front of the stage is used for the front of the building where some of the story’s key action takes place.

Directed and cast by Brian Marable, the ensemble works flawlessly together. Henri Franklin again shows his mastery of characterizations. A mainstay now of the Detroit Public, Mr. Franklin steadies every production in which he appears. Ms. Penman beautifully captures the vulnerability and narcissism of Angel all at once, no mean feat. Mr. Spencer as Guy beautifully portrays an ever-hopeful, dreamy, resilient gay man of a different time without over-playing it, and residing in a place where he is totally comfortable with who he is even if others are not. Ms. Lewis has a charming balance between her fervent advocacy for women’s rights and youthful innocence. And Mr. Boyd-Williams turns what could have been a one-dimensional characterization in a lesser actor’s hands into one of layers that makes the central conflict of the story believable and authentic.

Ultimately, Blues for an Alabama Sky is a triumph of storytelling, offering a profound meditation on the human condition and the enduring power of love, friendship, and redemption. The resilience of the human spirit is the real star of the story.