The Nativity, recast in '90s Detroit

The Nativity, recast in '90s Detroit

REVIEW

By ANNE SHARP

NEWS SPECIAL WRITER

The spirit of Christmas lives on in Michael Lee’s mime drama “Dreamlight,” at Performance Network this weekend. A dreamy, dance-like pageant with musical accompaniment and few spoken words, it’s a retelling of the Nativity story that’s gentle and sweet, but certainly not sentimental.

A local mime and theater instructor, Lee conceived “Dreamlight” a few years ago as an Advent play to be performed by a Detroit-area church youth group. The company currently performing “Dreamlight” is unique in that it consists largely of homeless people, recruited from Detroit’s Cass Corridor, as well as some professional actors.

Trying to pick out who the homeless cast members are and who are the professionals is a game that soon becomes irrelevant once “Dreamlight” gets going. Everybody connected with this show has definitely got their stuff together.

“Dreamlight” takes the story of the birth of Jesus Christ and relocates it very close to home. Joseph, an hourly worker at one of the Big Three, has just gotten his pink slip when Mary tells her she’s pregnant, and his first impulse is to smack her. Rage, fear and despair overtake Mary and Joseph, as they slip into poverty, are evicted, and wander the streets, pushing their belongings in a shopping cart. The inn that turns them away is an overcrowded homeless shelter. The stable is a ragged Tent City-style lean-to. But a miracle is still a miracle, whether it happens in Bethlehem or Grand Circus Park.

The updated elements of “Dreamlight” are never coy, and never get in the way of the essential story of the Nativity. Despite the presence of the real homeless in this parable of homelessness, there really is no attempt to make a political statement about it. There is a certain poetic freedom about “Dreamlight” that allows it to make observations that go beyond the expected preachments.

For instance, there’s King Herod’s goon squad, played by four small boys in paramilitary red berets, that seem to act like a combination police force and street gang, serving people their eviction notices one minute, sticking them up the next. Could this mean what I think it means?

Or there’s the homeless shelter, symbolized by a doorway frame, with an attendant standing by with a set of masks. As individuals straggle in, they are forced by the attendant to pat themselves down to show they aren’t carrying weapons, and then are handed copies of the same white, blank-faced masks to put on. When they come out, they hand back the masks and become people again. When they go back in, the “homeless” masks go on, and the personalities vanish. The point is taken.

The performers are all fine, including Lee himself, who creates a lovely image of the angel Gabriel as a swooping, bird-like creature. Singer-guitarist-pianist Jerald Irish and drummer James Barnes play along with a sort of warm, spiritual hipness.

Dreamlight Theatre Co. presents "Dreamlight" at Performance Network, 408 W. Washington St., through Jan. 24. Curtain times are 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday and 2 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Signing for the hearing impaired will be provided at Sunday's 6:30 show. For information and reservations call Performance Network at 663-0681.