One in Two

One in Two is playing at the Signature Theatre located at 480 West 42nd Street. It runs eighty-five minutes with no intermission. The play closes on January 12, 2020.

“Time now-until, Place nowhere, every where (or, a waiting room).

The set is white, there are steps. Person to the left (Jamal Dobson), Person in the middle (Edward Mawere) and Person to the right (Leland Fowler) sit on the top landing. There three screens on top of the stage, numbers keep building up.

They argue who is going to be one. They asked the audience to decide by clapping for each one.

Person in the middle is number 1, Person to the left is number 2 and person to the right number is number 3.

They put on shirts with the number on it.

Number 1 finds out he has aids. He is told one in two gay African Americans has aids.

The story follows his life. When he tells his long-time lover who he broke up with that he has aids he tells him he was tested for aids and he doesn’t have it. The lover says he won’t leave him but he does. Number 1 mother is upset. He takes medicine but along the way he stops. He starts drinking.

Number 2 & 3 interact with 1 as different people in his life.

Number 1 gets into a tub; he takes all his pills and drinks Scotch out of a bottle. He rests his head on the back of the tub you think he has died. He opens his eyes and jumps up saying I don’t want to live. Number 3 says you have to die but Number 2 tells him to back off.

I won’t say what happens. As it ends the cast has there back to the audience.

This is very touching story with an outstanding cast.

You don’t get a playbill till you leave. The playwright Donja R. Love did not want the audience to have a preconceived idea about who the characters were. The actors backs are to the audience, to say this is not over. That what you saw is still going on.

After the play they had a talk “Where Art Meets our Present Culture”. Nancy Giles was the Moderator. The panelists were Timothy DuWhite, John-Martin Green and Britton Williams. All gave insight on what happened in the play.

This is a powerful play that needs to be heard and hopefully it will be.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for photos. Click on photos for this and other shows.