Even if her late grandmother hadn't been a New Orleans spiritualist practicing under the agnomen of "Tituba" (after the Obeah sorceress referenced in the Salem Witch Trials), her death would still have left some big shoes for her granddaughter to fill. Eldest sibling Sasha's filial responsibilities include forsaking her roommates on the South Side of Chicago and moving into a two-bedroom apartment so that her college-bound brother can qualify for in-state tuition, even as she struggles to pay off her own student loans on a barista's wages. Further escalating the domestic tension is her frivolous sister, who arrives for an extended visit wearing a fountain of braided twists and a wardrobe right out of the Frederick's of Hollywood catalogue. Sasha refuses to surrender to self-indulgent whining, but even before we see her praying to a shrine erected in honor of her deceased family members, we begin to suspect that the strain of her suppressed grief is beginning to take its toll. If the forty-minute video adaption of Perceptions Theater's debut production, Black Magic seems more the first half of a longer narrative than a complete play, viewers willing to linger at the website may listen in on a video "talkback" featuring a discussion led by a therapist from the nearby Soul Werks Cafe, who analyses the clinical and cultural behavioral issues revealed in Jerluane "Jay" Jenkins's glimpse of young people living in today's urban environment. These encompass the pressures inflicted on Black women to "be strong"—particularly on older children forced to serve in loco parentis—as well as the reluctance in African-American communities to speak of mental health disorders (leading to counseling centers being called "cafes") and the unhappiness arising therefrom. Launching a new theater company is a herculean task during the best of times, let alone in the midst of a CDC-mandated Shutdown, but cinematographer Dareion Shaw's skillful editing captures the ease with which the cast assembled by director Myesha-Tiara—Valerie Papillon, Nia Vines, Alyssa Arizpe and Jabari Khaliq—conveys the candor and intimacy of characters immediately recognizable by each of us.
