first night review: Tiny Beautiful Things

The cast of Tiny Beautiful Things: Photo by Brittany Werner

First night review: Tiny Beautiful Things @ The Marquette Theatre at Loyola University, New Orleans
Review by Dorian Hatchett

The French have a concept called jolie-laide, which roughly translates to 'ugly-beautiful'. It’s used to describe unconventionally attractive women, but it gets thrown around to describe all sorts of concepts where the true beauty of something lies in its imperfections, rather than in some divine symmetry.

Tiny Beautiful Things is a melange of everything imperfect about people, and how the intersection of lives can bring those imperfections together like facets of cut crystal. It is presented by Crescent City Stage, based on the novel by Cheryl Strayed.  

A novel writer takes on the project of an advice column. It seems simple enough. The word on the page is easy to compartmentalize into something separate from life, though, and our main character finds out all too quickly that the letters are real; perhaps more real than she was prepared for.  

The stage is austere. A single room, with a desk and a different chair at each corner. The entire progression of the plot is in the dialogue, and the lack of fussiness is perfect for forcing the audience to focus on the words, rather than the room.  

Tenea Intriago plays Sugar, the pseudonym for an anonymous advice-broker. She is quirky and interesting, and when she reaches into her lived experience to give guidance, the audience gains a glimpse not only into her life and history, but also a master class in grief and finding yourself through the tides of human experience. The writing is pithy and poignant, and full of brilliant analogies for experiencing life through our fragile conscious. Ms. Intriago is sublime in her portrayal of the complicated, clever Sugar.  

The letter writers are a Greek chorus; three voices in atomic orbit around our columnist. They are portrayed by Steve Zissis, Helena Wang, and Rashif Ali.  Three actors with a plethora of characters, they quick-change from one to the next as simple spotlights frame small monologues.

A barrage of voices, of problems, of the eternal question, “WTF?!” ring out to surround, overwhelm, and intrigue the writer. There is genuine laughter from the audience at times, and the chorus soaks it up and uses it as further fuel to turn around and thrust deep the knives of pain that cover our bravado and our elaborate coping masks– the things that we would use to separate ourselves from the lives of others.  

Once they have us hanging on to their every word, they effortlessly bring forth our own grief, mirrored in bullet points about loss and the moments we cannot seem to escape. Sugar expertly plucks these threads out of the air and weaves them together into a tapestry that is rich and beautiful and ugly, in just the right places. 

Tiny Beautiful Things is playing through May 25th at the Marquette Theatre at Loyola University. Click here for more information and ticketing

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