THE SPIRIT MOVES
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
This holds true even if, as in this case, you don’t find the show particularly convincing. The Spirit Moves was written by Beverley as a showcase for herself; though effective as a display of theatrical virtuosity, its substance doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny.
On the surface, the play (directed by A. Dean Irby) is an autobiographical account of a woman’s journey through her own personal valley of sorrows, and of the role of her Christian faith in guiding her down her difficult road. There’s nothing in the script or program materials to indicate whether this is really Beverley’s story or simply one she created from her own imagination and/or observations; in any case, its elements include the loss of a beloved, devoutly religious grandmother, a period of aspiration as an actress, a fierce bout with emotional depression and a struggle to survive life in a mental institution, and a troubled relationship with a teenage girl who succumbs to the deadly temptations of drugs. This last situation dominates the second half of the play, as the unnamed woman whom Beverley portrays tries vainly to keep the child from giving in to the wicked influences all about her; the intensity of these efforts proves destructive, as the girl rebels against the woman and heads straight into the arms of a needle-wielding pimp.
