Review: Split Ends

I am very happy to report that Split Ends is one of those very rare pieces of theater that is as enjoyable as it is challenging, and as beautiful as it is important.

Venus Opal Reese (familiar from The Seven) wrote and performs the piece, which employs a variety of modes of expression: Reese uses everything from video interviews to rap and poetry to modern dance, all to illuminate African-American women's experiences, struggles, disappointments and triumphs with their hair. At first glance, the issue might seem trivial - hair? Really, a show about hairstyles? Reese quickly demonstrates that for black women, hair has been "both our burden and our liberation, our barrier and our connection, our cross and our salvation." It's an issue that is frought with sociopolitical implications, and yet the piece is filled with humor, joy, and vitality.


Reese begins the show, intimately staged at La Mama's Club space, by warming up onstage as the audience trickles in. A video plays informal clips of interviews with African-American woman talking about their hair. Some speak of loving their hair, some of being persecuted for it, some talk of their experiences straightening it and treating it, the unspoken (unconscious?) goal being assimilation - a white woman's hairstyle. The warm-up inauspiciously includes Reese winding her own hair into a neat twirl around the nape of her neck. When the lights come up, Reese begins the show as a male street poet, an "urban philosopher" who aggressively introduces the audience to the show's subject matter: the battle that black people face in accepting and loving themselves in a world where blackness is not truly accepted or loved, and where different is oftentimes considered ugly.

There is a whole lot of knowlege dropped within the 80 minute confines of this piece, but I've never believed that theater exists to educate alone. What's remarkable, even miraculous about Split Ends is the deep emotional current running through it, as if Reese's own heart beats in every word, movement, and character she takes on. Venus Opal Reese (a brilliant woman who happens to have two masters degrees and a doctorate) has such generosity of spirit that you know you're in very good hands. The connection between the personal and political is so well defined that I never felt lectured to, and instead felt that I was hearing a close friend or a family member relate stories that had formed her very identity.

With only three more performances, please don't miss this stunning piece. February 9th, 10th, and 11th, Friday & Saturday at 10:00pm, Sunday at 5:30pm. Check out La Mama for more info.

Photos by Olivia Jacquet.