Review: CBT’s ‘Trouble in Mind’ astonishes and amuses

The Clarence Brown Theatre’s “Trouble in Mind” opened Friday, Feb. 10 to great success. Kenneth Martin, the Artistic Director for the Clarence Brown and UT’s theatre department head, stood in the spotlight to introduce the show, reminding the audience that it is an important work, critical to our lives now.

It is an important piece of art, and beautiful too, in its powerful speeches and clever dialogue, but it is also so funny.

This show is a fantastic comedy, made so by the comedic timing of the cast, their interactions with each other timed perfectly. Laughs filled the audience and the stage, the characters cracking jokes with each other.

And throughout it all, a simmering. Something bubbles beneath, a slight tension, heightened one microaggression at a time. When the breaking point comes, it is deserved, it is expected, a tea kettle whistling sharply as the main character Wiletta, portrayed by Shinnerrie Jackson, finally gets to yell.

It is a meta-play, about a Broadway show in rehearsal. The show the characters are putting on portrays a community in tension over Black people voting; it ends with a lynching. Through the story within the story, the characters reflect on a community filled with prejudice, while experiencing prejudice in their real lives too. Wiletta must decide to star in the Broadway show or be loyal to her own sense of what is right.

It is made extra meta by the fact that it might have been the first play written by a black woman produced on a Broadway stage. But the playwright Alice Childress was asked to change too much, to take away too much of the story. She refused. “Trouble In Mind” came to

Broadway, finally, in 2021.

The Clarence Brown puts this show on with excellence.

The set is magnificent. It depicts a small rehearsal space, walls soaring up to the ceiling and the floor inching into the audience. It is immensely detailed and extensively intricate. The actors interact with the space in a familiar and natural way. They come down into the wings, they enter through the same entrances we the audience use. The space is well-used and well-constructed. Scenic designer Christopher Pickart’s stunning set draws us into the reality of this world: cluttered tables and water damage, old furniture and mismatched chairs. The cast is exceptional, and all of them are brilliant in their executions of complex characters. One stand-out performance is Joshua Peterson who portrays, at times devastatingly well, the character of Al, who will not accept or acknowledge his own prejudices and privilege. Another is Tom Parkhill, who portrays the bumbling and hilarious electrician, Henry. But this is truly Jackon’s show. In it, the character Al, directing the show’s show, asks for “natural” from his cast. Wiletta may struggle to draw it out, but Jackson does it flawlessly. Her portrayal of Wiletta is truthful and beautiful. She gives us comedy and drama tied seamlessly together, and she gets to show off her singing voice — emotionally impactful and brightly clear. There is no better word than powerful for describing her performance. After she delivers her commanding speech to Al, I am startled out of the moment by the audience’s applause.

It is a stunning show and an astonishingly desperate story of power.

“Trouble in Mind” is playing through Feb. 26. Student tickets are free. To get tickets, stop by or call the Box Office Tuesday through Friday from 12-5 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at the door 45 minutes prior to curtain.