“Hazardous Beauty” takes on race, gender, equality and love as two women from vastly differently backgrounds take turns critiquing and learning from each other
Women are continuously breaking down barriers to show their powers in this country and all over the world. There are women like Stacy Abrams, the first major-party black female candidate for governor and the first African-American woman to deliver the State of the Union response. There is Tiffany Haddish, an Emmy Award-winning actress/comedian who survived homelessness before reaching the pinnacle of success. And right here in Portland, Jo Ann Hardesty recently became the first woman of color to be elected to the City Council.
Although these barriers are being broken down, the mixture of pain, hardship, struggles, triumph, oppression, joy and relief are as much a part of their journey as their success.
Those emotions are on full display in PassinArt’s production of Bonnie Ratner’s play “Hazardous Beauty.” The two actresses, Quigley Provost-Landrum and Trish Egan, must uncover the complex issues that plague society today. Race, gender, equality and homelessness are at the forefront of issues confronted as the two characters critique each other during writing class.
Provost-Landrum plays Chloe, a black woman, and Egan plays Leah, a white woman who has experienced homelessness.
Provost-Landrum and Egan spoke with Street Roots about their roles, the complex issues within the play and why people should check it out.
DeVon Pouncey: During the play, the character of Chloe was hesitant to discuss some of the issues that African-American women face. How does that translate into real life based on issues that African-American women face that they may be hesitant to discuss publicly or with other people?
Quigley Provost-Landrum: Just as a woman in general, I find it difficult to open up to strangers at all. Personally, it takes me a considerable amount of time to feel comfortable with people to get very far into my personal life and issues. I do try to take some lessons from my mother, who was very strong, open and unhesitatingly confrontational.
It was difficult to deal with growing up, but it is a quality that I greatly admire. I was a sickly child, and she worked really hard to push her way through with medical professionals to get me the help that she thought I needed. I also have relatives that have dealt with issues such as breast cancer, and it’s a difficult thing to face, and a lot of women are wary for medical professionals to take them seriously.
That can be extremely difficult for women and older women to stand up for themselves and make themselves heard. Delving into those issues with strangers because you just don’t put your business out there with people that you dont know. It can be really hard asking for help.
D.P.: Being that your character, Leah, is homeless, what was the preparation like to play the role of a homeless person?
Trish Egan: I spent a number of days without taking a shower or washing the clothes that I was wearing just to get a feel of how demeaning it can be when you can’t even take care of your personal hygiene. I went for a long, long walk one night sort of by accident because I got a little lost and I badly needed to urinate, and I thought, OK what do you do now as Leah? Who is going to let you in at 10:30 at night to allow you to use the restroom? It caused me to think of how homeless people had to plan their life.
I’ve also known a number of homeless people, and I had a relative who was homeless for many years. I also chatted with a young man I met that was sleeping out of his car, and I stopped and chatted with him a few times just to see what that was like for him.
D.P.: Working with Trish Egan and having lived in Portland since 1991, what was your comfort level being a part of a play that heavily expressed and covered the issue of homelessness?
Provost-Landrum: It’s obviously a really important issue and something that needs to be addressed by not only the government but all of us here in the Portland community. What’s great about the play is that it helped us to actually see people that are currently without homes and houses as human beings. Not simply somebody that you are passing by on the sidewalk or somebody you’re seeing pushing something through the street. The play causes us to stop and see them and understand them as people that are in need of something in their lives just as we are. That’s a huge part of the appeal of the piece to me.
D.P.: Working with Provost-Landrum, were there any eye-openers for you about some of the issues African-American women commonly face?
Egan: The breast cancer statistic was an eye-opener for me. I’d done some work in the medical field, and knowing the percentage rates were no more than just a statistic on a Web page. Finding out the personal impact taught me a lot. I also learned a lot about what it must be like losing a son to violence. There was some very deep and emotional content relative to that in the play. Granted, Chloe wasn’t a real person; it was my first time carrying on a conversation about that kind of loss, and how do you pick up yourself and carry on after a loss like that?
D.P.: What is the single most important element of this play that you would like the audience to take away from it?
Provost-Landrum: The idea of being able to see each other and not being afraid to contact and talk to each other. Also to not be afraid to be wrong about the ideas that you may be carrying about someone that you don’t know.
Egan: It’s kind of two-pronged, one is that it’s a time of such deep and frightening division in this country that if we don’t find a way as human beings to make a connection with other people and at least listen to their perspective, we may never be able to heal that wound.
The second part would just be that the people in our lives are the most important things. Politics and stuff we own or don’t own are important in a way, but when I die, I’m not going to think about politics or the stuff I own. I think about the people I love and that loved me back and the impact I left to make somebody else’s life a little bit better.
I want to make sure that people don’t think this is a lecture about serious subjects. It’s about how those things are a part of our lives whether we want them to be or not, and how we learn to pick up one foot and put it in front of the other to keep on going. That can be joyous, too.
IF YOU GO
What: “Hazardous Beauty,” a production of PassinArt: A Theater Company.
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8, 9, 15 and 16; 3 p.m. Feb. 10 and 17. On Sunday, Feb. 10, the actresses, the director and a moderator will hold a discussion with the audience.
Where: Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5240 N Interstate, Portland.
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