Mama Juggs
nytheatre.com review by Brad Lee Thomason
August 16, 2011
I didn’t count how many times the word “titty” was said in this production, but if you told me it was about 347 times I wouldn’t argue with you. Now, to me, titty is an innately funny word, but no matter how many times ‘rie Shontel says it that doesn’t mean Mama Juggs is something to be taken lightly. That is because there isn’t a whole lot of comedy here.
Not to say that Shontel couldn’t do it if she wanted to; because she does pretty much everything else. There may be a few giggles, but that’s about it. There are four characters in Mama Juggs, the most important of which and the one who introduces us is a one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother who has quite a bit of advice on how to use your… um… titties.
Shontel plays the four characters throughout and seamlessly transitions between them—from the grandmother to a seventeen-year-old to that same seventeen-year-old ten years older to her mother, a forty-seven year old woman dying from breast cancer. Now you see why the word “titty” isn’t all that funny.
Shontel does not stray away from the taboo and certainly has no apologies while doing so. I suppose when one is dealing with a major crisis all things taboo become irrelevant, and basically Shontel can say whatever the (word edit) she wants. She stands up and makes us talk about things we don’t necessarily want to talk about. She tries to keep it light; but, there’s no way to keep this light.
That being said, Shontel is a gifted performer. Much of the tale is told a cappella choral-gospel style, which makes one think when she shifts into the Suga Babe character, wow, that 100-year-old certainly has a good pair of pipes. There is a scene when, as the mother, she actually goes through the process of self-medicating her breasts in front of the audience. That was interesting, but the real tragedy is that she didn’t go back for treatment once she was diagnosed.
As you enter the Players Theatre the back wall is decorated with large bras, and you think she’s going to use them, but she never does; and don’t worry about the fact that this story may hit you a little too close to the chest, because I think that is what she intends.
