Stellar Performances Carry ‘Misery’s’ Lessons Forward

Shay Youngblood’s “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery” at the Stella Adler Theater has itslimitations. Chronologically confused and didactic, Youngblood’s period piece about a young African American woman’s coming of age in the Deep South is essentially episodic, a loosely strung-together series of anecdotes that could have meandered, given a less assured staging.

However, director Zadia Ife and her splendid cast imbue Youngblood’s otherwise richly folkloric play with much humor and more heart, illustrating the all-encompassing community dynamic--the faith, support and generosity of spirit--that made a grinding life in the Jim Crow era tolerable.

Despite their uncertain status in this pre-civil-rights, pre-feminist society, Youngblood’s women constitute a staunch matriarchy, largely independent of menfolk and sufficient unto themselves. Daughter (Desiree Walter), whose character also serves as the adult narrator, may live with her grandmother (Barbara Roberts), but she is a fortunate child, surrounded at all times by surrogate mothers who treat her as their own.

Home-grown storytellers and eccentrics, these characters have tales to tell and points to make--sometimes too explicitly, with Daughter often informing the audience of precisely what she has learned from any given situation. Barring these shortcomings, Ife elicits a bevy of finely drawn performances--particularly from Aloma Wright as a no-nonsense bootlegger who takes her pleasures where she finds them and the down-to-earth Roberts, who conveys her character’s capaciousness with economy and restraint. Effectively punctuating the proceedings, Bili Redd Thedford’s live percussion dovetails perfectly with Frank Fitzpatrick’s sound design.

* “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery,” Stella Adler Theater, 6773 Hollywood Blvd. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends Feb. 27. $18. (323) 655-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.