YEMAYA Review: 9 Works Theatrical Trusts Us to Wade Into Its Waters
The stage before the June 12 press preview of YEMAYA at The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater. Photo by Saul de Jesus / Unsaulicited. The best way to enter YEMAYA is not to demand a map. It is to allow yourself to believe, even for a while, that its world exists. At its June 12 press preview, 9 Works Theatrical’s YEMAYA did not build every corner of that world for the audience. Instead, it invited us to become active participants in imagining it: the fictional province of Magdalena, the city beyond it, the waters leading toward an idealized America, and the uncertain possibilities waiting past the shore. That trust is one of the production’s strengths. YEMAYA taps into a part of the psyche that adulthood often teaches us to suppress. It puts us through the paces of childlike wonder, shock, hope, fantasy, and the unexpected. It allows the story to unravel without immediately explaining every bend in the journey. At times, it...
