In The Color Purple, the success of the story of Celie and her struggles in trials that bring her to independence and restore her faith in God depends to a large extent on the actress in that role. At WBTT, Alpphia Campbell endows it with all the inner strength the heroine possesses and how she uses it to achieve outer strength, as well. Her major co-stars also score, both dramatically and musically in the sometimes difficult music based on Alice Walker’s important novel.
Biblically, purple is associated with wealth and power, yet in the Christian half, soldiers mockingly clothed Christ in it when bringing him to scourging before death. In church liturgy today, purple sometimes denotes penance, sacrifice; sometimes, royal recovery. Throughout The Color Purple, Celie prays to God to help her find her sister Nettie (perceptively played by Khadijah Rolle), who has been torn from her and whose letters have been intercepted by Mister, Celie’s cruel husband. When they are reunited, she need no longer seek spiritual fullness but enjoy it, symbolized by purple. There’s suffering from the start when Celie, 14, raped by her father, bears a second child he seems to dispose of. By wedding the harsh Mister (Cecil E. Washington, Jr., incarnating evil and cruelty), she saves Nettie, who can go on to be a teacher. Celie knows nothing but work, beatings, and violation, until she meets Shrug, a prostitute and singer who’s off and on lover to Mister. Neyce Pierre makes her vital as performer and woman, with her real love reciprocated by Celie. Mister’s son Harpo (whose growth is shown by Joel Patrick King in a fine subplot performance) is attracted to another strong woman, Sofia (shown as defiant by Dametria “Dee” Selmore). She leaves him at one point and suffers incarceration for trying not to be what amounts to a slave, while Harpo dallies with young Squeak (Xylina Stamper), who really wants to be a singer. Harpo’s maturing is a joy to behold, especially as he relates to Sofia and they unite. There’s an African sequence, showing Nettie as a teacher who, with help from missionaries, is responsible for Celie’s two children. Mister’s change for the better involves him in the reunion that Celie has prayed for and returns her to an almost abandoned faith. Director James Harness keeps the action focused on Celie in her twofold purpose: to become a strong, independent woman (symbolized by her success in a commercial business in pants, which she, herself, leads women in wearing) and to reunite with loved ones and God. The musical numbers are well integrated, although I doubt many are hummed by audiences after the ending. They’re well played by an unseen band under John Bronston’s musical direction. Nothing’s easy about this production, but from the wooden frames that are moved to denote different settings to the Three Church Ladies (Tarra Conner Jones, Tierra A. Walker, and Deidre Grace) who supply information and scene transitions in gospel fashion, everything works.
