Animal Wisdom @Signature Theatre

The Play: Animal Wisdom; a revival of the self-proclaimed 2017 requiem that aims to simultaneously mourn and celebrate its MacArthur Genius author’s childhood in Natchez, Mississippi and the ancestors, or ghosts, who helped shape it

Written by: Heather Christian        Directed by: Keenan Tyler Oliphant 

One good thing: Kenita R. Miller has stepped in to play the main character and her powerhouse vocals lend layers of soul-stirring jazz and blues to the show’s eclectic but largely folk-roots score

One not-so-great thing: The show is a purposeful patchwork of memory and imagination but the pieces—including a rambling narrative, an onstage band costumed as though going to a Sgt. Pepper's theme party and a final 25-minute section that takes place almost entirely in the dark—don’t fit together quite as well as intended and while they do seem to reduce some audience members to tears they can also come across as self-indulgent and pretentious to others