For Colored Girls...

I have only read parts of For Colored Girls, though I've never seen it performed. I imagine that Shange's poems when performed against a minimalist background on stage, on an arena that suggests but does not define a clear place, would be extremely effective. That said, I may be made of stone, but I don't think I've ever seen a movie in which a woman discovers she is HIV positive, a man drops two children from a five-story building, a woman is raped, and another woman suffers the horrors of a back-alley abortion -- note to Tyler Perry, the abortion procedure can be legally and safely administered in New York state -- that left me this cold. It wasn't laughable, but with a few extra directorial missteps, Perry may have created a Grand Guignol comedy. It was very frustrating seeing some wonderful actresses forced to butcher some lovely words while under the tutelage of a cheap, truly Oprah-fied director.

Perry strives for the sentimental and the easily redemptive, a path Shange refuses to walk. I don't know if there is some fundamentalist Christian streak in him that demands that he punish his characters for their most humane shortcomings. Bitchy career woman. Punishment: HIV. Abused woman who all too patiently suffers a psychotic boyfriend? Punishment: dead kids. You want to abort your child? Oh, Perry's got something special in store for you.