‘The Brothers Size’ Off-Broadway review — André Holland leads a mythic, revelatory tale of fraternal bonds
Read our review of The Brothers Size off Broadway, a revival of the 2007 drama by Tarell Alvin McCraney at The Shed, starring André Holland.
When Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brothers Size premiered in 2007, André Holland had picked up some television roles and a supporting one in the independent sports drama Sugar, and McCraney was in the midst of his tenure as RSC/Warwick International Playwright in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Both studious theatremakers and artists, but neither yet had their “into the stratosphere” moment that their collaboration on the Best Picture Academy Award winner Moonlight would help give them.
In a 2009 production of The Brothers Size, Holland played Elegba, a friend and temptation whom younger brother Oshoosi Size met while incarcerated. Holland was young enough to play the brashness of Elegba’s alluring hedonism and tenderness, the other half of a part of Oshoosi the recently released Size brother is both too scared to reckon with, and not to.
Now, in a revival of The Brothers Size at The Shed co-directed by McCraney and Bijan Sheibani, Holland plays older, paternal Size brother Ogun. He's tired of looking after his “fuck-up” of a younger sibling, portrayed by Alani iLongwe as sly and serpentine, rolling across and within a salt circle that surrounds the stage. Oshoosi's apparent goal is to build a new life primarily with the promise of women and relaxation, even as Ogun pushes him to find new work and get everything together.
But Holland doesn’t opt for the ease of rage and total dismissal of Oshoosi; instead, there’s a melancholic exasperation written across Ogun’s expressions, a familiar weariness that comes with decades of history and lessons never bothered to be learned.
Holland’s return to The Brothers Size adds depth to the show's relationship to time. So much of Oshoosi’s life has been eaten up by being behind bars, and that Holland once played Elegba — who at once represents the one solace Oshoosi found in prison, the danger of earthly pleasures, and the paradoxical freedom that submitting to such pleasures can provide — makes his Ogun's frustration and fury feel all the more explosive and desperate. He’s been on the other side, desperate for redemption and connection, and is just as guilty of leading someone astray, even if his motives were rooted in desire.
This production’s Elegba, Malcolm Mays, cements the character's and the show’s earthiness, imbuing his maybe-reformed character with sweltering pull. When Elegba and Oshoosi encircle one another, their heads almost resting against the other and their bodies twirling with balletic grace, you can feel the electric yearning pulsating from Mays's body.
Holland, having emanated something similar all those years ago in the same role, thus gives his Ogun the tragedy of understanding, making him feel all the more devastated by Oshoosi’s surrender to something that may prove self-destructive. But perhaps it’s that same awareness, and touch of history within the production itself, that allows the finale to land with such revelatory beauty, fueled by an incendiary hope and fraternal bond.
The Brothers Size summary
Recently released from prison, Oshoosi (Alani iLongwe) returns to live with his car mechanic brother Ogun (André Holland) in an attempt to forge a new life for himself. But the reappearance of a friend from inside, the enticing and mesmerizing Elegba (Malcolm Mays), threatens the progress Oshoosi makes in his rebirth in the world outside of incarceration.
The Brothers Size is the second of McCraney’s The Brothers/Sisters Plays trilogy, also including In The Red and Brown Water and Marcus, or the Secret of Sweet. Holland had also played Marcus's title character in 2009.
What to expect at The Brothers Size
The Brothers Size is presented in the round, the performers acting in a large ring of salt, stepping around and sliding inside of it. Juel D. Lane’s choreography and McCraney and Sheibani’s direction allow the performers to toggle between a bouncy naturalism and a ribbony elegance of movement, all soundtracked by the live percussion of Stan Mathabane.
What audiences are saying about The Brothers Size
The Brothers Size has an 85% audience approval rating on Show-Score, with theatregoers praising the cast's performances and the storytelling, even without elaborate spectacle.
- “Powerful performances in an interesting relationship story of times good and bad. Sound and light support is very good.” - Show-Score user Patrick M 4
- “A superb production of a play I did not connect with. The actors are beautifully physical and wholly committed. As well executed as this was, I identified with those checking their watches.” - Show-Score user aka
- “Very well acted. Three actors with a talented percussionist give their all in this barebones production.” - Show-Score user chris_
Read more audience reviews of The Brothers Size on Show-Score.
Who should see The Brothers Size
- Audiences looking for an exquisite study of fraternal bonds, Black masculinity, queer desire, the complexity of life after incarceration, and the porous boundaries between past and present will find The Brothers Size totally captivating.
- Fans of the movie Moonlight, adapted by McCraney from one of his plays, will want to check out the gorgeous and vivid portrait of Black men caught between who they could be and who the world boxed them into.
- André Holland fans will not want to miss his urgent and stirring performance of a man whose love for his brother may or may not have its limits.
Learn more about The Brothers Size
In The Shed’s intimate staging, The Brothers Size lets the audience in on the title family’s tough reality of whether to live in the dreams of their past or wake up to their fraught realities, with mythic and indelible results.
Photo credit: The Brothers Size off Broadway. (Photos by Marc J. Franklin)
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