‘Yesterday’ Inspires Longing for Theater of Yesteryear

During a passage in P.J. Gibson’s 1985 drama, “Long Time Since Yesterday,” now revived at the Raven Playhouse, loquacious Babbs Wilkerson (Barbara Evans) wonders what happened to all the strong black men of the ‘60s--and what happened to the ‘60s, for that matter.

It’s an ironic moment in this play--about five African American women friends who reunite at the funeral of their friend Janeen (Wendy Collins) who has committed suicide--because it also makes us wonder what happened to African American theater of the ‘60s. Did the stunning art and rage of Amiri Baraka’s “Dutchman,” for example, lead to this extremely old-fashioned piece of melodrama?

Curiously, the whole of “Long Time” exists totally removed from the ‘60s or anything resembling daring theater--but is instead a long and winding piece that eventually pits its antagonists against each other to unleash that standard weapon of old-time theater: The Buried Secret.

Before we get there, Gibson introduces us to Babbs, who covers her pain in booze and gabbing away; Laveer (Shirley Butler), recently back in touch with Janeen before her suicide after years of estrangement; Panzi (Annzella Victoria), who holds a grinding animus toward Laveer; Alisa (Denise Raychelle), whom we never get to know very well; and quiet Thelma (Cyndi Martino), who explains to us that she had to academically outperform her lighter-skinned siblings just to be noticed.

This revelation comes at one of the play’s many passages where the gals are just sitting around talking--sometimes interesting talk, but not quite the stuff that drives a drama forward. It’s kitchen-sink dialogue (in this case, with the kitchen sink offstage) that merely allows us to hear from Babbs, Alisa and Thelma before the main event: Laveer vs. Panzi.

The dramatic pitch of this play is terribly schematic, rather than surprising and startling in the way life can be. As Laveer flashes back to scenes with fragile, emotionally scarred Janeen, we can feel the Buried Secret coming. When it does come, though, it’s like a late-arriving train rather than the kind of emotional shock that casts everything preceding it in a new light. In fact, Panzi’s particular secret doesn’t even ring all that believably.

That may be because, under Wilson Bell’s direction, Victoria telegraphs her lesbian character’s meanness and selfishness so early that we have her pegged as trouble. (Even more troublesome, though, is that Gibson’s depiction of this borders on the homophobic.) Butler’s interesting performance as Laveer, by contrast, telegraphs nothing--emotionally opaque, but a friend who comes in from the cold. Collins’ is a mostly one-note performance, unable to convey Janeen’s gradual collapse. Among the friends in the background, Evans as Babbs delivers such engaging monologues that it’s easy to imagine a play about Babbs and her men that would be much better than “Long Time Since Yesterday.”

BE THERE

“Long Time Since Yesterday,” Raven Playhouse, 5233 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. Ends Sept. 7. $15. (213) 466-1767 or (818) 953-9993.