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Written by Emily Scharf Monday, 02 March 2015 12:40

The stories she told stuck with me all week.

The play Sweet Jenn, A Living Exhibit is an original production written by and starring Lakeetha Blakeney. I saw this 40-minute show last week at the Natural Bridge branch of the St. Louis County Library and was incredibly moved.

Blakeney was briefly joined on stage by a dancer and later a young girl, but mostly, this is a one-woman show. Blakeney plays Jenny Butler, a slave at the McLain plantation whose trials and tribulations tell stories of the history of the antebellum south.

Blakeney read many female slave narratives to prepare for writing this play. Although the play is fiction, the events within happened to real women whose children were taken away and sold and whose lives were made unbearable by the realities of slavery.

This show was moving and, even though it was standing room only at the performance I attended, Blakeney reached every audience member in the room. Her singing voice rang out with all the emotions of her character as tears streamed down her face and the stories she told stuck with me all week. I highly recommend this play. | Emily Scharf

More information about future show times or booking a performance can be found at http://redeeminghistorytheatricals.blogspot.com/p/sweety-jenn-living-exhibit.html.