Robsham spices it up with 'Pieces of Sugar'

In its continued efforts to broaden the horizons of the theatre department and its students, the Robsham Theater Arts Center and the Undergraduate Government of Boston College hosted part-time faculty Robbie McCauley's one-woman show Pieces of Sugar. In her hour-long presentation last Thursday night, Robbie explored a wide range of topics, most specifically dwelling on her own experience as a diabetic black woman in America.

Robbie McCauley has an interesting and impressive background in the professional theater. For 35 years, she's worked as an actress, director, and playwright, trainging her well in the kind of artistic skills needed in a one-woman show. Most notably, McCauley was a member of the original Broadway cast of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. In addition to being a part-time faculty member at BC, she is an associate professor of theater at Emerson.

The performance was loosely structured around McCauley trying to prepare a traditional lecture about diabetes, but finding difficulty in keeping "her mouth out." She would start on a topic like health care, and then go off on a tangent about Marx's ideas on religion as a comfort. McCauley's stream-of-consciousness style seemed more like a slam poetry session than a traditional script. Sometimes the speed of her topic changes made it difficult to follow what she was talking about, but her rhythmic, descriptive language kept the audience's attention throughout her thought-provoking piece.

The Show found its rhythm when McCauley brought up topics that are often ignored in favor of more popular issues. For instance, her narrative centered on her struggle with diabetes, a disease that drastically alters a person's life. Along with her discussions about food and how the "sugar" keeps her going, she told the audience the stories of people who risked amputation to avoid the side effects of the disease. McCauley continually mentioned food, and how basic eating rituals are magnified in importance to a diabetic person. For those of us who have food allergies, diseases, and other medical problems that affect the way we eat, McCauley's conversation was especially relevant. Talking about medical problems or things that are "wrong" with our bodies is never pleasant, but McCauley reassured us toward the finale: It's a simple message that people tend to forget: You cannot be perfect. It is living with our imperfections and, more importantly, being conscious and considerate of the imperfections and struggles of others that will lead to better relationships.

After the performance, McCauley came back out on stage, and with the help of Scott Cumming, assistant chair of the theatre department, engaged in a talkback, in which the audience is open to question and comment on the show with the performer. The talkback allowed the audience to get closer to the show, and McCauley was very encouraging to the questions of audience members, some of whom were students in her class Ethnic Theatre Studies.

There was some confusion with audience members about what exactly was going on in the beginning of the show. Fliers around campus had said that McCauley's piece would speak about "the difficulties of living together. Whether we are black, brown, or white … there are always deep historical and cultural chasms that divide us." And while McCauley did indeed discuss the disparities of the medical society, and how her show was actually born from a medical report that finally admitted to these unfair practices against African-Americans, racial and gender tensions seemed to be born out of the actual theme of diabetes.

That said, McCauley's piece, however originally hazy, was overall both original and intriguing. After the show, Robbie mentioned how she has performed Sugar in Minnesota, Ohio State, and now BC, and how the piece is still a work in progress. She continues to adapt the piece, even in the middle of a performance, to the style that works for her, or that works the best for a particular audience. At the close of the talk, McCauley said that audiences are the most "trustworthy people in the world." They suspend their disbelief and strive to meet the performer in the middle and by doing so, start the conversations that are essential to getting over our differences and misperceptions of others, she said.