THEATER REVIEW : A Female Legacy : ‘Jar the Floor’ a Moving Portrait of Mothers, Daughters

A friend once had a dream that she was strangling her mother. She then pushed her mother out of the way and began to strangle a strange woman in a 1920s dress. Next in line for strangling was another unknown woman, decked out circa 1880.

Cheryl L. West’s “Jar the Floor,” now at South Coast Repertory, is like that dream, only fleshed out with great dialogue and infinitely more moving.

Centering on four generations of African American women, “Jar the Floor” explores the legacy of guilt and hostility that is passed from even the most loving mother to a daughter, and at the same time it shows that particular intimacy to be innately funny and wonderful. “Jar the Floor” breaks through many cliches of mother-daughter relations to embrace a household that is full of life.

Conflict is inevitable because each of the women has, in her distinctive way, an out-sized personality. MaDear (Fran Bennett) is a crotchety great-grandmother whose 90th-birthday celebration is the focus of the play. While MaDear can suddenly transform into the soul of a vulnerable young woman whose mother made her feel unspeakably ugly and worthless, she can, just as suddenly, say to her own daughter, “Gal, I should have killed you when you was born.”

MaDear’s favorite habits of Bible reading and viewing soap operas is interrupted on this busy day. She lives with her granddaughter, MayDee, in MayDee’s pleasant townhouse, done in soothing pine. Attractively designed by Emily T. Phillips, it is a modern place where a cordless phone shares a wall with a beautiful turn-of-the-century broom and brass dustpan and with a collection of Aunt Jemima-type dolls, which seem to signal this family’s connection with and possession of the pain of its African American past. Ancient wrongs hang over the household, although the characters never make speeches about it.

MayDee (Juanita Jennings), a professor of African American studies at an unnamed Illinois university, is waiting to find out if she has tenure, which may be the reason she is tense and snappish. Her habit of sucking in her cheeks disapprovingly, however, indicates this is MayDee’s natural expression.

In this family, overt misery tends to skip a generation. MayDee’s mother, Lola (Ann Weldon), is a high-spirited sexpot who “went straight from crawlin’ to swishin’ (her) behind.” She is also a naturally hilarious person who merrily accepts MaDear’s judgment that her Louis Vuitton handbag is hideous (“Glad I didn’t buy you one,” she answers her mother, who shoots back, “You and me both happy ‘bout that.”). Lola pouts emphatically when making a point, such as in a generational disagreement with MayDee about oral sex. “I told him my mouth was a sanctuary!” she says, bristling with showy indignation.

To complete the family saga, in walks the college-age Vennie (the stunning Jackie Mari Roberts) with her white lover, Raisa (Jodi Thelen), a visibly altered mastectomy survivor. Lola is immediately offended (“If Vennie gonna be that way, she could at least got herself a black girl with two breasts!”), while MayDee struggles vainly to be accepting and, most unexpectedly, MaDear recognizes a fellow fighter who is also close to death. In Thelen’s winning performance, Raisa’s warm smile touches MaDear in a place her own family cannot seem to reach.

Benny Sato Ambush directs this superb and attractive cast, expertly shifting attention from one of Weldon’s priceless expressions of outrage to Bennett’s stubbornness to Jennings’s disapproval to Roberts’ youthful fluidity in the course of the play’s many dilemmas. Weldon is especially good in a scene in which Lola holds back tears while watching her mother’s face light up at the (probably made-up) news that Lola’s favored brother contributed to a present she is presenting.

“Jar the Floor” drags a little in its second act, particularly in the showdown between MayDee and Vennie, which, if trimmed, could be riveting. MayDee dotes on her daughter while steadfastly and sourly refusing to recognize Vennie’s choices in both career and in love. When Vennie confronts her mother with, “You don’t even like me!” the news is so undeniable that it startles both of them. MayDee does, of course, love her daughter, as do all the terrible, wonderful mothers in this family. Cheryl West’s gift is that she makes ancient wrongs fresh and ancient love enduring. She jars the floor as well as the soul with all this complicated love.

* “Jar the Floor,” South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, Tuesday-Saturday, 8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday, 2:30 p.m., Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Ends Dec. 4. $24-$34. (714) 957-4033. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Fran Bennett: MaDear

Juanita Jennings: MayDee

Ann Weldon: Lola

Jackie Mari Roberts: Vennie

Jodi Thelen: Raisa

A South Coast Repertory production. By Cheryl L. West. Directed by Benny Sato Ambush. Scenic design by Emily T. Phillips. Costumes by Myrna Colley-Lee. Lighting design by Paulie Jenkins. Sound design by Garth Hemphill. Production manager Michael Mora. Stage manager Randall K. Lum.