In Lynn Nottage's play, an African American actress thrives in 1930s Hollywood by taking stereotypical roles.
In the first act of Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, the title character is a young African American maid in 1930s Los Angeles who wants more out of life—to become a Hollywood actress who plays young African American maids in the movies. The desperation with which she pursues such a painfully modest goal infuses this comedy—currently on view in a thoroughly entertaining production at Ensemble Theatre—with no small amount of melancholy. In the second act, which begins 40 years later and ends 30 years after that, the title character is an aging Hollywood has-been who again wants more out of life—to prove that she can be more than the role that made her famous (you guessed it, as an African American maid). All this time-jumping feels forced, and takes Nottage's play in a discursive, less entertaining direction. Still, you leave the theater not glum but grateful for the evening's stinging and hilarious moments, of which there are several.
But Vera Stark, despite an overlong second act, has a great deal of interesting things to say about the modern world and its dilemmas (as Hattie McDaniel, oft-criticized for her Oscar-winning turn in Gone With the Wind, put it, "I'd rather make $700 a week playing a maid than earn $7 a day being a maid"). It is similarly eloquent about the plight of African American actors (both men and women, both then and now). And thanks to Eileen J. Morris's swift and confident direction, Vera Stark says them in way that makes for a unique and uniquely enjoyable night at the theater.