Love In The Nick of Tyme

Love In The Nick of Tyme: a play review

Today in honor of me actually getting a request, I decided to review a play. This one in particular seemed promising at first glance, but everything that followed had fail written all over it..... the first sign would be it's appearance on B.E.T. what I found to be amazing is the fact it wasn't a Tyler Perry play, but sadly, it had a similar flair, which brings me to blacks in drama.... well, there's not really much to talk about here is there? Well, there is a reason for that; most plays starring African Americans tend to be horrible with poor acting being the major issue, their plots are generally weak, the subject matter is never anything deep or complex; their stories lack a certain amount of depth, which would warrant them to be taken serious, and overall, they have a tendency to be stereotypical as well as being riddled with various degrees of foolishness. What's even more disturbing is the lack of a socially conscious message; no metaphor can be seen in relation to any form of realistic empowerment within the majority of the plays. My last most recent look at any play made by an African Americans prior to this one was my introduction to Tyler Perry's work, and boy was I outraged by his ridiculous characters, poor interpretations of black people, and those damn religious overtones. I would go on to rip into him, but it was already covered in the Diary of a Mad Black Woman review. Thankfully this is a different writer. Although given the current state of plays in relation to blacks, that doesn't seem to make a difference in this case. The man I'm speaking of is none other than David E. Talbert, a playwright, director, and producer, who is probably best known for his first feature length film: First Sunday, a movie that starred Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan as two petty thieves that attempt to rob a church. To simply say: "that movie sucked", would be an understatement of epic proportions.

To be honest, the idea of the plot centering on robbing a church wasn't necessarily bad, it could have been a device used to open a constructive dialogue about how the church takes money from black communities making their pockets fatter so they can ride in Mercedes, own a house or two as well as make the church look ten times better with big screen TV's, extravagant decorations, and more, meanwhile the community looks like a desolate wasteland. This movie could have been something admirable and praiseworthy daring to break their bond of social conformity within the black community, but the shit falls short of anything on that level. I mean, after all, blacks loooove church..... *sigh*
 
David had also produced a  reality TV show, Black Stage, a program where actors and singers compete for a part in one of his plays. Pretty much like any other form of "reality" TV series where people compete.

The play.....

In 2009,  Talbert, produced what appeared to be his 12th play for B.E.T. titled: Love In The Nick Of Tyme. Like others in his field, David has managed to perfect the art of creating plays with a superficial atmosphere centering on lust as a major proponent and materialistic glorification masking the insecurities we hold. Remember what I said above about it looking promising? Well, that may have been a temporal lapse in judgment as well as sanity. Appearances can be deceiving.... Love In The Nick Of Tyme is a play about a woman who owns and runs a (insert the generic career for a black woman to have in any given form of media) beauty shop and is stuck in a love triangle between a jazz musician and a UPS man . Not that I'm against it, but damn, is there nothing else? She couldn't be a doctor instead? Oooh, wait, that would take some deep mental construction to develop a form of art that is compelling. (my mistake) The play begins with some black guy in a purple suit lighting a cigarette looking like a wannabe pimp with a fake white beard. (looked fake to me, if not it was colored) Not quite sure what he was supposed to be, I honestly could not figure it out. Pimp might be a stretch considering no women were even acknowledging this dude at all, he reminded me of a fake ass Ving Rhames, but apparently this guy is our narrator. Although with his picture shown hanging on the door, it would imply that he was either a jazz musician or owner of the club he was standing outside of.. (he really looked more like Barney the purple Dinosaur) The next scene opens with Tyme, portrayed by actress Terry Dexter, as she walks into her shop that just so happens to have the alarm going off.(sounds like a bad neighborhood to keep your shop in) turns out to be nothing more than faulty wiring. What follows next can only be described as a tasteless personification of ignorance that goes by the name Elgin.... *sigh* why...?


Elgin is an incompetent security guard who apparently likes to wear shorts showing off his ashy knees in 30 degrees, because his "mamma" suggested he should wear his own clothes if the work pants didn't fit him. (What moron picks shorts to wear when it's 30 degrees outside? And why the hell are the shorts that he owns the only thing he could find to fit him? The hell does he spend money on? Probably those donuts shown in the play) Everything about this character is annoying and sad.(I mean, he couldn't even afford to pay for some much needed lotion)  I would like to say he's the only clown in the whole play, but the truth is a crackhead will make an appearance alongside a hustler selling stolen goods... (worst neighborhood to run a shop) Later, Tyme's son, Man (too lazy to give him an actual name I guess) shows up. He seemed to be an okay character, but he came off too cheery with the most cheesiest looking smile painted on his face leaving him to be one of the corniest of characters in the cast. Actor, Morris Chestnut plays the role of Man's father, Marcelles, a jazz musician who can't seem to keep his promises and is always on the road. He also is the on again off again boyfriend of Tyme. That last sentence let's us no right away what their relationship is like; not stable. Throughout the course of them both being on screen together we learn from Ms. Dee Dee, portrayed by Elia English( Jamie Foxx Show) in one of her rants that he doesn't pay child support, and we all know that's a bad sign.... We also learn a bit more about the relationship between Tyme and Marcelles as they begin to reminisce over the good times such as, the time she slashed his tires when she was under the impression he was cheating on her, and who could forget day she keyed his car with an ice scraper, because she thought he was cheating? This insight tells us she has some jealousy issues and considering the type of guy he is, one would wonder why she continues to play this game.

In the second act of the play we are introduced to three women who work at Tyme's salon, two of which were the most ghetto of all the women in the play. In fact the only women that weren't was Tyme and Lauren. Lauren was the third woman employed at the salon. She was portrayed by Lyn Talbert, who is the wife of David. (Damn, her husband didn't give her the lead role? That's messed up) I actually liked this character, but sadly she was over shadowed by the other women in the shop. Next person to arrive is the neighborhood hustler, a fake interpretation of a Pan African male. He wasn't as bad as Elgin, but he was a moron as well.Believe it or not, he was played by the singer, Avant. (music must not be selling like it used to; last I heard, he only had four minutes) Once he leaves,  a dancing crackhead shows up at the window.... yes, the same one I mentioned above. David obviously got the idea for look of the crackhead from Chapelle, but does not do the look any justice, it was just a knock off of Tyrone Biggums. zero points for originality.

As we began to reach the middle, Henry, the UPS man enters the salon. Henry is the polar opposite of Marcelles and the man who wants to be with Tyme. Though a few of his lines were corny, I couldn't really say much more, the actor's portrayal was fairly decent, until he began to break into song. Apparently Andre Pitre, the man in the role of the UPS man, is an R&B singer like Avant. Trust me, he's not all that... Anyway, after that crappy watered down duet with Tyme and the UPS boy, Ms. Dee Dee decides to talk about dicks and not just any kind either, no sir, she was talking about the ones the size of a yard stick, after Tyme has finished doing her hair. Ms. Dee Dee feels that Tyme may be whipped because Marcelles has the magic stick. (allegedly)

In the last act of the play, Tyme eventually starts going out with Henry and enjoys his company, but our boy Marcelles finds out. Instead of being a man, owning up to his mistakes, he chooses the next best thing; sleeping with one of Tyme's employees. While Marcelles messes around, he also does his best to get inside Tyme's head. Eventually Tyme gets fed up with this loser. Thank goodness!!

Final thoughts.....

 I actually liked the character of Tyme and love the portrayal by Terry, but as the play progressed she sounded like she could barely catch her breath. Besides that, the musical aspect was poor and overly exaggerated, and the acting was terribly over done. I will say this: half of the cast actually grow over the course of time and Ms. Dee Dee wasn't really a bad character, she seen through the bullshit of everyone, essentially calling them out. In truth. this play is pretty much a Tyler Perry play minus Madea and the man bashing. It failed because of that reason in particular. I do feel that the play would be better as a movie, if he took out all the crap hindering it from being viewed positively. Is it worth watching? Hell no. The plot was weak and predictable, the performance level was mediocre, and Avant needs to keep his day job, he really sucked. If you are a reasonably intelligent person, trust me, I do NOT recommend.