Pittsburgh resident Marlene Davis chose to spend her Tuesday night seeing the production, “Distorted Love” because “it spoke to a lot of women’s situation and how you try to escape realism in those situations,” she said.
“Distorted Love,” a Charlayne Henry Production in Association with A Sistas Thang Productions, centered around the all-female Cantrell family of attorneys at Whitmore, Lacey and Ditmon. Delores is a retired partner at the firm while Debora is poised to make partner at the firm.
Debora (played by Natalia H. Thomas) is a single, hard-working mother who has little to no time to raise her teenage daughter, Dena (played by Charay Young). As a result, Dena feels neglected and lost. The girl doesn’t know who her father is and constantly asks her mother for his telephone number so she can connect with him. She wants someone to teach her how to have a real view of love instead of a distorted one like her mother and grandmother, (Delores “Nana” Cantrell), do.
“Who will teach me? Who will keep me from distorted love? How will I learn and grow when there’s no one to teach me right from wrong? Who’ll teach me the right way to love?” Dena sang.
Debora wants Dena to follow in Delores’ and her footsteps and become an attorney. But Dena wishes to become a writer, which causes dissension within the dysfunctional family. Debora is on the same search for her father. She has asked her mother countless times who he is but Nana remains tight-lipped.
“We are educated women in this family,” said Nana, played perfectly by writer, producer Charlayne Henry, to Dena. “Making excuses is where poor mentality starts. No one has power over your life unless you give it to them. The Cantrell way was to fall in love with men who didn’t care for them. We had a distorted view of love and our self-image.”
Delores scrubbed Whitmore’s floors, washed his clothes. He realized what a brilliant attorney she could be when she spoke to attendees at a dinner party at his home. As a result, Whitmore took Delores under his wing and taught her everything she needed to know about law. She became partner at the firm, and pregnant with his child, Debora.
Each member of the Cantrell family came to the realization that despite what problems or situations may arise, love and family are the most important things to everyone.
Although the part of Delores was played wonderfully by Henry, the production lacked the talent, charm and humor of Henry’s previous production, “Don’t Wait for the Hearse to Bring You to Church.”
“God is opening up and expanding our territory,” Henry said after the play ended. “Love is not distorted. God is love and real love is what the world needs.”
A Sistas Thang Productions will show two other productions before it ends its season.
The youth production, “The Gift” will be Dec. 10-11. “Now Ain’t That the Truth” will be held Dec. 26. The production will feature Shante Thomas as the hilariously outspoken “Minnie.”
(To purchase tickets to or for more information on these productions or on A Sistas Thang Production company, visit www.asistasthang.biz.)
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