Chamber Theatre's 'Brothers Size' taps Yoruba mythology to explore brotherhood

Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size, now in production by the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, is a rough-hewn and poignant vehicle that evokes the complicated dynamics of human brotherhood.

The play draws heavily on the mythology of the Yoruba, an African people whose territory today occupies southwestern Nigeria and adjoining parts of Benin and Togo. The play’s characters and the narrative heavily tap Yoruba religious mythology, making Louisiana’s backwater bayou country where the play is set a place of legend for those who know what to look and listen for.

The Brothers Size are Ogun Size (Travis Knight), who has dedicated himself to running his auto repair shop, and Oshoosi Size (Andrew Muwonge) — recently released from prison — who wanders aimlessly, distinctly disinterested in following his brother’s hardworking path. The arrival of Elegba (Marques Causey) — Oshoosi’s former prison-mate and sometime lover who promises a free car with which Oshoosi can escape the bayou — is both a temptation and trap.

As the “Percussionist,” Jahmes Finlayson rounds out the cast.

The characters’ names are drawn from the Yoruba, a culture and religion that arrived in America with the slave trade. Much of the culture’s religious aspect is based on the worship of deities called Orisha.

Their names predestine them for a certain level of existence because they are the names of Yoruba Orisha. Ogun is the Orisha of iron working, while Oshoosi represents the divine hunt and human struggle for survival.

Elegba shares his name with the Orisha representing crossroads and choices. In The Brothers Size, his role is to offer Oshoosi a different fate than the one offered by Ogun. For good or ill, that is the fate Oshoosi chooses.

“Ogun, Oshoosi and Elegba together make up a trifecta of warriors that together have great power,” Gobel says. “I have added the Egungun that calls the ancestors with drumming and compels the living to uphold the ethical standards of the past generations.

“In Yoruba, the goal is not to become the deity and lose one’s self, but rather to become one’s self more fully,” Gobel adds. “If we keep in line with this spiritual philosophy, what an attendee of a performance of The Brothers Size should experience — in an abstract way — is a visit from the Gods, who have come to tell us a story designed to lead us to personal betterment.”

‘Re-educating a new generation’

McCraney — who in 2016 received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Moonlight — wrote The Brothers Size in 2007 while pursuing an MFA at Yale University’s School of Drama. Although written first, it became the second installment in what is known as McCraney’s Brother/Sister Trilogy. The play is bracketed in its timeline by In the Red and Brown Water and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet.

“I have read the entire trilogy of the Brother/Sister plays,” says Marti Gobel, who is directing the Chamber Theatre production. “Each one stands alone beautifully, but work so much better when one has the knowledge of the content found in all three.”

McCraney’s use of Yoruba myth is deliberate and doesn’t only occupy a folklore niche, Gobel explains. By reintroducing the concept of Yoruba religious mythology, the author has opened a door heretofore unknown to even many Yoruban descendants, not to mention multicultural audiences that can benefit from seeing the rough, crude drama with a wider, more spiritual lens.

“In my opinion, (McCraney) is brilliant, singlehandedly re-educating a new generation of the spiritual practices of our ancestors, while simultaneously entertaining us with references to our current culture,” Gobel says.

The use of the name of various Orisha for down-to-earth, very human characters struggling to survive in this world is the crowning spiritual touch, she adds.

“We are all simply gods and goddesses who forget our way from time to time,” Gobel says.