Observer Editor
In my less enlightened days I thought one-person plays wouldn’t be very interesting.
Thankfully I no longer think that way, and Sunday night at the Kirk Douglas Theatre I thoroughly enjoyed Charlayne Woodard’s presentation of “The Night Watcher.”
On opening night all of the theatre’s 317 seats were filled. As I drove in the rain I wondered if that would be the case, but the theatre was sold out and there was also a line of folks without tickets hoping for cancellations.
In thinking about this review I decided to skip a technical analysis and focus on what happens when one performer is on the stage alone for two hours.
I’d be frightened. I’d realize there was nobody to help me – to cover a mistake I’d make like professional actors and actresses can do.
I then thought about Woodard’s range of talent. She spoke, imitated the voices of persons she was talking to on the phone, sang a few songs, made us laugh and gave the audience things to think about.
She was helped by the presence of a large screen at the back of the stage. So even though she was the only performer there were also the pictures on the screen. When she talked about Los Angeles there were photos of familiar territory. When she talked about New York there were photos of skyscrapers. When she talked about children that she knew we saw a glimpse of what they looked like.
There was so much going on that you tended to forget only one performer was on the stage.
My impression was that this woman is extremely talented. But I sometimes like to endorse my opinions by casually asking audience members about the play afterward.
“She keeps you so interested that you don’t miss anything,” said one.
“She’s marvelous,” said another.
“It helps a one-person performer when she also wrote the play,” said another, ‘’If she flubs a line, who would know?”
Woodard did write this play. But I didn’t think she flubbed even one line.
Her credentials are impressive. Woodard has made frequent appearances on Law & Order, SVU, she performed a solo play ”Neat” at the Mark Taper Forum, she performed in a multi-cast play “Flight” at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and she performed in the original company of “Ain’t Misbehavin” on Broadway.
She had a serious theme in “The Night Watcher,” a tribute to the contributions of the extended family – Godmothers and aunties.
“We don’t need more children in the world, we need people to help take care of the ones who are already here,” she tells the audience.
In the opening scene she receives a call from a friend who knows she was recently married and knows a young woman about to give birth. She says the woman isn’t ready to be a mother but perhaps Woodard would raise the child.
In declining the invitation Woodard says: “How about that? When someone knows you’re married without children they try to give you theirs.”
For the remainder of the play Woodard weaves together stories of how she has mentored children in her life and keeps the audience enthralled.
Remarkably, Woodard will go on performing the play nightly here until December 18.
I would never tell you “don’t miss it,” but I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy the experience.
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