TARELL ALVIN MCCRANEY — THE BROTHERS SIZE

I’m always trying to make the intimate epic, finding a way to grab my personal impulses or the personal impulses that I see in other human beings and activate them in a way that allows the theatrical engagement to be epic. — Tarell Alvin McCraney*

Told in rich and agile narrative shorthand, McCraney’s THE BROTHERS SIZE dramatizes a series of episodes about a pair brothers in a small bayou town in Louisiana. Ogun Size (Sheaun McKinney), earnest and responsible, owns a car repair shop. Oshoosi Size (Alani iLongwe), happy-go-lucky and vulnerable to persuasion after a stint in prison, is currently living with and working for his older brother. Enter the trickster figure Elegba (Malcolm Mays), who had spent time in stir with Oshoosi. This poet of seduction will come between the brothers and set a tragedy in motion. The sketches—what the playwright has called “lessons about human connection”—are performed on a bare set and coalesce around concepts of grievance, fortitude, and the carceral nature of brotherhood, resulting in an extraordinarily resonant act of theatrical world building.

Since its premiere twenty years ago at New York’s Public Theater, THE BROTHERS SIZE —McCraney’s first play—has received several acclaimed productions across the country and internationally. As part of the American canon, it falls largely to the members of each new ensemble to electrify the material (or not). The three actors in the new production at the Geffen Playhouse (where McCraney is the Artistic Director) are completely in sync with the playwright’s story as well as an unusual tic in its structure: McCraney has inserted intermittently spoken stage directions into the play’s dialogue. Often symbolizing a pause of exasperation, this method of telling-before-showing lends a humorous touch to the proceedings, a performative code switch that allows a brief respite from the play’s inexorable resolution. All dramaturgical tricks aside, as the play moves into its great final arias of dialog—when McCraney realizes his epic reach—everyone in the room, onstage and in the audience, is transformed.

THE BROTHERS SIZE is directed by McCraney veteran Bijan Sheibani, who helmed a 2018 revival of the play at London’s Young Vic. Composer–musician Stan Mathabane plays various percussion and wind instruments onstage and serves as the production’s sound designer. See info and links below for details.

THE BROTHERS SIZE

Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Directed by Bijan Sheibani

Through September 8

Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater

Geffen Playhouse

10886 LeConte Avenue, Westwood, Los Angeles

geffenplayhouse.org/shows/the-brothers-size

Produced by the Geffen Playhouse and The Shed

*“The Brothers Size at 20,” Tarell Alvin McCraney in conversation with Lindsay A. Jenkins.

geffenplayhouse.org/the-brothers-size-at-20

Tarell Alvin McCraney, The Brothers Size, directed by Bijan Sheibani, Geffen Playhouse, August 14–September 8, 2024, from top: Sheaun McKinney (left) and Alani iLongwe; Malcolm Mays (left) and iLongwe; iLongwe, Mays, and McKinney; McKinney; Stan Mathabane; McKinney, iLongwe, and Mays.