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Directed by Tamilla Woodard, the two-hander hops from scenes of the pair\u2019s adult reconnection to their shard-like memories as troubled children of violent, alcoholic and absent parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In one of the most moving sequences, affectionate youthful roughhousing switches back and forth with the duo\u2019s hardcore, laser-focused training decades later. That long, continuous arc highlights both the innocent inside every MMA fighter and the play-wrestler in every adult who\u2019s socialized away any urge to fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For anyone who grew up with siblings, it might revive the urge to bust out the couch forts and start pretending all over again.<\/p>\n
![\"Sullivan]()
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Sullivan Jones as Big holds and Ngozi Anyanwu as Lil in Berkeley Repertory Theatre\u2019s \u201cThe Monsters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Berne\/Berkeley Repertory Theatre<\/p>\n
Still, a story about a younger outsider-turned-rookie and older pro-turned-coach has pretty much only one way it can unfold, and \u201cThe Monsters\u201d hews to it. Toward the end, the script overexplains and sentimentalizes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t wanna be like him,\u201d Big says of his unseen father, long after the show implied the point. A reconciliation stoops to \u201cCause we\u2019re family\u201d cheesiness. If Big\u2019s lines about why he fights\u00a0\u2014 everyone sees him, a large Black man, as a monster, so he lets them \u201csee the monster\u201d\u00a0\u2014 are finely wrought, they fail to surprise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But characters as lovable as Lil and Big, with Jones\u2019 mournful eyes practically begging someone to melt his gruff exterior, are bound to have a happy ending. That\u2019s the contract a script writes when it begins with such joyous lines as \u201cYou incognegro as f\u2014\u201d and sibling squabbles over the car radio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fight choreography of Adesola Osakalumi brings its own kind of joy. In some moments, Bailey Trierweiler and UpTownWorks\u2019 sound design triple-underlines the impact of each jab and kick. It comes off a bit like a video game sound effect, but one where you can hear the underlying thrum and throb of the body\u2019s bloodstream as it\u2019s about to get bruised.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Sullivan]()
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Sullivan Jones as Big, left, and Ngozi Anyanwu as Lil in Berkeley Repertory Theatre\u2019s \u201cThe Monsters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Berne\/Berkeley Repertory Theatre<\/p>\n
When Lil is still a tyro, Osakalumi devises the perfect physicality for her struggling to keep up with her brother. Lying on the ground, feebly shadowboxing in the air, she\u2019s like a toddler trying to work itself into a tantrum so it doesn\u2019t have to take a nap. In her first attempt at a fighting stance, she looks more ready to wave a magic wand than throw a punch.<\/p>\n
In \u201cThe Monsters,\u201d which Anyanwu bills as a sibling love story, Big and Lil are both mirror images and counterweights. They can\u2019t be the same thing at once, so they trade places.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In a harsher play, that switch would come with violence, but Big takes his losses with subdued resignation that the script could have made a little more out of. For a play about kids who didn\u2019t get a full childhood, that\u2019s a moment he finally grows up\u00a0\u2014 which is to say, shows compassion for his inner child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ngozi Anyanwu as Lil in Berkeley Repertory Theatre\u2019s \u201cThe Monsters.\u201d Kevin Berne\/Berkeley Repertory Theatre Great stage acting is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[329,143,145,144,1058],"class_list":["post-250637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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