ADVERTISEMENT

    Theater Review: CATCO’s Beautiful ‘…but you could’ve held my hand’

    CATCO continues a strong 2022-23 season with the Ohio premiere, and only second production mounted, of JuCoby Johnson’s beautiful and charming …but you could’ve held my hand, warmly directed by David J. Glover.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    ….but you could’ve held my hand introduces us to the four characters, Eddie (Alan Tyson), Charlie (Taylor Nelson), Marigold (Robbi Fryer) and Max (Jabari Johnson), singing the great Lowman Pauling composition “Dedicated to the One I Love,” each singing one line and gesturing to the next like passing a baton, then wordlessly dancing – the first taste of Gamal Brown’s excellent choreography – as the original 5 Royales recording washes the room. Before the action shifts to the characters meeting as 10-year olds during Marigold’s mother’s wedding to her stepfather, that introduction establishes the play and the production’s allegiance to an emotional and psychological truth that isn’t welded to a nuts-and-bolts realism.

    These characters are easy to like, even when we see them drive one another insane. That’s a credit to four stunning performances that depict the characters through several stages of life and always establish where and when we are as the play drops us into another scene; the seamless connections to era and place are helped along by Esther Sands’ subtle costumes and Lonelle Yoder’s carefully chosen/designed props, but most of those transitions smoothly sail on shifts in body language and syntax. We get to watch these four friends grow into their own as people, and we get that picture in shades of color and sharply chosen fragments.

    …but you could've held my hand - Photo provided by CATCO
    …but you could’ve held my hand – Photo provided by CATCO

    I’ve never seen work for the stage that so beautifully captures the vibration of meeting someone you know is going to be a friend, a confidant for many years, and carries off the complicated joy of those friendships. Nelson’s Charlie finds themselves through the push and pull of stripping away things that don’t serve them and building up an image of themselves, internally and for the world, building boundaries and understanding what they can ask of their friends. It’s a bravura performance, breathtaking in its unshowiness, so the moments where she explodes, as in a garment-rending breakdown during a transition, pop.

    Johnson’s Max has a line that echoes and is deconstructed by the characters throughout the play, that when he looks at Marigold, it’s like a garden of flowers is blooming inside him. We see Tyson, as his alcohol problem worsens, cough up a flower into his hand, and we see the characters throwing flower petals off of their dress clothes in the first moments – reinforcing not only that line about romantic love but the way we blossom in conjunction with other people, that we grow stronger and richer when we’re in the soil of love and community. Johnson gives Max a disarming ease in his goofiness, a sense that he’s the other character’s rock partly because of his willingness to lean into what he doesn’t know. His dynamic with Fryer and Tyson radiates sweetness but never becomes monochromatic.

    Fryer gets a couple of the sharpest declamations and makes the most of a couple of the finest speeches in the play – her palpably electric dressing-down of Eddie, her 10-year-old, has-it-all-figured-out entrance. Watching her navigate the relationships, an unsustainable marriage but lasting friendship with Max, a runaway substance abuse problem from Eddie, understanding she’s doing more than her share of the emotional labor to make these work but still holding the line when she says “enough.”

    In many ways, the showiest role, Tyson always keeps the falling-apart Eddie grounded in kindness, humor, and empathy that makes it clear why the other friends stick around. When the play sets up impulse control problems, he underplays them instead of flashing a neon sign, so the audience catches the through line but not too soon.

    …but you could’ve held my hand is a reminder that seeing the good in people, and leading with sweetness, doesn’t have to be dull or simple. That reflecting joy is a powerful, necessary tonic in dark times.

    An introduction to an invigorating new voice and another shining example of Glover’s keen ear and care with writing that could fall apart in other hands….but you could’ve held my hand runs through April 8 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays. For tickets and more info, visit catco.org.

    …but you could've held my hand - Photo provided by CATCO
    …but you could’ve held my hand – Photo provided by CATCO
    ADVERTISEMENT

    Subscribe

    More to Explore:

    Housing Planned for Key Corner Across From Columbus State Campus

    Columbus State Community College and Woda Cooper Companies announced...

    Theater Review: The Contemporary’s Moving ‘Skeleton Crew’

    The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio continues its 2023-24 season...

    Downtown Population Hits 12,000 Mark With 3,400 More Units in the Pipeline

    The annual "State of Downtown" report from the The Capital Crossroads & Discovery District Special Improvement Districts (SID) was released on Wednesday, containing the latest numbers on Downtown's growth.

    Connecting Downtown: Here Comes The Capital Line

    Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and Edwards Companies President...
    Richard Sanford
    Richard Sanfordhttp://sanfordspeaks.blogspot.com/
    Richard Sanford is a freelance contributor to Columbus Underground covering the city's vibrant theatre scene. You can find him seeking inspiration at a variety of bars, concert halls, performance spaces, museums and galleries.
    ADVERTISEMENT