Hidden away amidst the clubs, bars, and restaurants of downtown Greensboro on South Elm Street, one would never imagine the creative sparks that fly on the small stage of The Pyrle Theater at the Triad Stage.

For the past several weeks, the Triad Stage has hosted The Old Settler, a play written by John Henry Redwood and debuted in 1996 at the McCarter and Long Wharf Theatres.

Redwood’s play is set in the 1940’s in New York City, New York in a section of the city called Harlem. Set during the World War II, the play focuses in on the lives of four black people and how their life experiences and things that happen in the world around them color their interactions with one another.

The four characters in the play are Elizabeth, Quilly, Husband, and Lou Bessie.

Elizabeth and Quilly are sisters who are approaching senior citizenship and live together. Elizabeth is the older of the two, who sacrificed her youth to care for her sister and was never married. Quilly, the younger of the two is a firebrand whose husband recently left her after 30 years of marriage.

Husband is a young boarder that the two take in to help pay the rent and Lou Bessie is Husband’s love interest who he has come to Harlem to find.

As the show progresses, Lou Bessie is revealed as a disingenuous women who is only interested in Husband’s money and Husband and Elizabeth fall in love in a peculiar May- December romance. Amidst all that is going on with the characters’ personal lives the work still manages to draw reference to the social injustices black people in America faced during that time period.

The cast of Edloe Blackwell as Elizabeth ; Elizabeth Flax as Quilly; Randi Martin as Lou Bessie; and, Postell Pringle as Husband does an exceptional job of bringing these characters to life on the stage making the entire experience a captivating one for all in attendance.

The charm of the experience is heightened by the set and overall setup of the theater.

An intimate setting, just big enough to accommodate a small and attentive audience, the Triad Stage at The Pyrle Theater is the coziest and most welcoming theater that any one could ever imagine.

This play is very entertaining and suspenseful at times and I would recommend it to everyone as an alternative a weekend party or movie.

There is a strong Aggie presence associated with this production as Donna Bradby an A&T professor and Randi Martin, a recent A&T alumni are both involved. Bradby as director and Martin playing Lou Bessie.

So, I urge all Aggies to show some pride and to support their fellow Aggies.

 For Ticket Information:Triad Stage232 South Elm StreetGreensboro, NC 27401US

Box Office: (336) 272-0160Performance Dates:

Thursday, Nov. 9 @ 7:30pm

Friday, Nov. 10 @ 8pm

Saturday, Nov. 11 @ 8pm

Sunday, Nov 12 @ 2pm and @ 7:30pm

• Review By Michele Matthews