Comedy, drama and tragedy season three generations of women in 'Stew'

Like life itself, Zora Howard's "Stew" is a bouillabaisse of comedy and family drama — with a few bay leaves of tragedy that flavor everything.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's engrossing production, directed by Malkia Stampley, opened Saturday evening at the Broadway Theatre Center, marking the group's return to performing for live audiences after 20 months of virtual activities.

Black matriarch Mama (Olivia Dawson) is cooking up an enormous batch of food for a church event with her daughters, the thirtyish Lillian (Krystal Drake) and 17-year-old Nelly (Sola Thompson), plus Lillian's tween daughter Lil' Mama (Malaina Moore). The younger three chafe under her stern kitchen dictatorship and policing of swearing. Lillian and Nelly also squirm because they're keeping secrets from Mama, whose fatigue and lapses in concentration have them concerned. (I'm no psychologist, but it's likely she's suffering from PTSD.) 

While they banter and bicker, slice and stir, they wait for the arrival of Junior, Lillian's son, and for a call from Lillian's husband. 

When Mama discovers that Lil' Mama is auditioning to portray Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare's "Richard III," she begins coaching her granddaughter on playing the scene with emotion, with a sweet potato as a stand-in baby. Lillian and Nelly butt in, giving us the comic treat of watching trained, talented actors perform Shakespeare like overconfident amateurs. Then, in a stunning moment, Dawson delivers Elizabeth's speech with dignity and gravity that would be at home at the Globe. It's Elizabeth's lament for the dead princes in the tower, and Howard did not choose it accidentally.  

From that point, "Stew" turns more somber, as secrets spill out, generational patterns reveal themselves, and the source of Mama's trauma becomes more apparent. Yet love and humor also persist

It would be possible and even defensible for Dawson to play Mama as even meaner, but I like what she does, showing sternness as the carapace Mama uses for protection and to keep disorder at bay. Moore, as the youngest character, hits the right notes with her questions about why her elders do what they do, including the time-honored lament of many girls: Why do I have to be helping in the kitchen while my brother is out playing?

Mama could give her more than one answer to that question.

If you go

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre performs "Stew" through Nov. 7 at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. Proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test is required. Masks are required. For tickets and info, visit milwaukeechambertheatre.org.