NRACT's Rendition of Dot Features Fast-Paced
Directing and a Uniformly Outstanding Cast

The North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre's Jan. 20-Feb. 5 presentation of Dot, written by Colman Domingo and directed by Natasha Jackson, is a play about a Philadelphia family coming to terms with their mother's progressive sinking into Alzheimer's. The cast is uniformly outstanding, and the directing is fast paced and consistent.

Production designer/technical director Thomas Mauney's set is appropriately understated, fading into the background to focus on the characters. He and stage manager Shereatha McLean Terry do a wonderful job.

Lisa A. Flores-Wolfert's costuming is perfect, and the audience understands the characters as soon as they walk on stage (full disclosure: this writer's mother was a professional theater costumer). Wolfert is also to be congratulated on finding the worst and most outrageous Christmas sweaters possible.

The play opens in Dotty Shealy's kitchen, two days before Christmas. Dotty's African American family lives in a once-fashionable neighborhood, now fallen onto hard times and afflicted with high crime. Dotty (played by Jacquie Deas-Brown) is fading away as her daughter, Shelly (J. Ra'Chel Fowler), desperately attempts to keep her mother fed, medicated, and safe. Shelly is barely holding on to the end of her rope by using a mixture of alcohol and outrage that her younger brother, Donnie (Mark Robinson), and younger sister Averie (Aya Wallace), have not stepped up at all to help take care of their mother.

The Dot cast includes (front row, from left) Anjali Thawani, J Ra'Chel Fowler, Jacque Deas-Brown, and Aya Wallace and
(back row, from left) Mark Robinson, Nick Popio, and Katie Miligan (photo by Lyle Turner for Turner Photography)

Dotty herself seems blissfully unaware that she is becoming more confused and forgetful. Jackie (Katie Milligan), a former neighbor and the only white girl who ever lived in the neighborhood, has stopped by to borrow sheets and light bulbs to set up housekeeping in her old house down the street.

Jackie's nearly 40 and pregnant from a one-night stand in New York City. Since their years in high school, Jackie has carried a torch 20 years for Dotty's son, Donnie. Jackie is the audience slowly becoming aware something is wrong with Dotty as Shelly has been too tired or too ashamed -- or both -- to tell Jackie about her mother's decline.

As the action progresses, Dotty is becoming terrified, aware -- in her lucid moments -- that something is dreadfully wrong with her. Then, by turns, she'll slip back into the bliss of the past or become angry at being treated like a child.

The family gathers for Christmas. Donnie and his tall white husband, Adam (Nick Popio), arrive first, with their own set of problems. Baby sister Averie, a loud, self-promoting, and over-the-top politically-correct aspiring actress sweeps in like a storm coming in from the sea. Donnie writes arcane articles about music for even more arcane music magazines. Neither has much money; and the audience gets the distinct feeling that if they did have money, they would buy their way out of dealing directly with Dotty day to day. Shelly has her own problems as a low-paid public defender and a single mother of a nine-year-old boy.

Jacquie Deas-Brown (left) and Anjali Thawani star in Dot (photo by Lyle Turner for Turner Photography)

Shelly starts to lay out the facts and her demands to her siblings while a Kashmiri immigrant woman named Fidelia (Anjali Thawani) takes care of Dotty.

Here Colman Domingo's script begins to wander off into the peripheral characters working out their problems with Dotty pretty much in the background until the end of the play.

The script is powerful for the first three fourths of the play. It goes off focus in the second half of the final act. The actors and crew are game nonetheless, keeping up the pace as the script wanders into different directions towards a somewhat maudlin end.

Note: The Alzheimer's Association of North Carolina invites donations at the door, before and after the show,
and during intermission. You may also donate to the association online -- via NRACT -- by clicking here.

The cast for the North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre's presentation of Colman Domingo's Dot, directed by Natasha Jackson, includes
(from left) J Ra'Chel Fowler, Mark Robinson, Nick Popio, Anjali Thawani, and Aya Wallace (photo by Lyle Turner for Turner Photography)

Colman Domingo's DOT (In Person at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27-29 and Feb. 3-5), directed by Natasha Jackson and starring Jacquie Deas-Brown as Dotty Shealy, J. Ra'Chel Fowler as Shelly Shealy, Mark Robinson as Donnie Shealy, Aya Wallace as Averie Shealy, Katie Milligan as Jackie, Nick Popio as Adam Shealy, and Anjali Thawani as Fidelia (North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre in Raleigh). 2022 SEASON: http://www.nract.org/shows. THE PRESENTER/VENUE: https://www.nract.org/, http://www.facebook.com/NRACT, http://instagram.com/nract_raleigh, https://twitter.com/NRACT_raleigh, and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ifc8evvO-kGDgGFXq3Fww. DIRECTIONS: https://www.google.com/maps/. ACCESSIBILITY: https://www.nract.org/accessibility. COVID REQUIREMENTS: http://www.nract.org/news-events. DOT: https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/60374/dot. COLMAN DOMINGO: https://www.colmandomingo.com/, http://www.iobdb.com/CreditableEntity/22253, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/colman-domingo-417633, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0231458/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colman_Domingo. TICKETS: $22 ($20 students and teachers, seniors, and active-duty military personnel), plus taxes and fees. Click here to buy tickets. INFORMATION: 919-866-0228 or ops@nract.com. PLEASE DONATE TO: North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre and the Alzheimer's Association of North Carolina.

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