A Haunting Eye

The Bluest Eye, Huntington Theater Company, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through March 26. (Digitally streaming through April 9). 617-266-0800 or huntingtontheatre.org

While in college, Lydia R. Diamond made it her mission to read every one of Toni Morrison's books As the talented playwright ("Stick Fly," among others) explains in an essay "Why I Had to Adapt The Bluest Eye," "The Bluest Eye is not about race, but it's about the world of the characters, and unfortunately and fortunately they live in a place that's all about race." Huntington Theatre Company has beautifully captured that alternately troubled and treasured world in a stunningly stirring production at the Calderwood Pavilion's intimate Wimberly Theatre.

Morrison's acclaimed 1970 novel sets that world and its African-American protagonist Pecola Breedlove in 1940's Lorain, Ohio. Director Awoye Timpo, inspired by the black ritual tradition of storytelling in the round, has positioned some Wimberly seats upstage so that the actors seem to be surrounded by audience members in a cozy ambience. The talented cast often moves with spirit to Kurt Douglas' catchy choreography as the vivid if largely sad storytelling captures the late Depression era struggles of the Breedloves and the MacTeers.

Sisters Frieda and Claudia MacTeer often serve as child narrators as they describe ill-fated Pecola, her tough parents Cholly and Pauline and their own family. The title image reflects the interest of Frieda and Pecola in Shirley Temple's blue eyes. Pecola quite simply wishes that she had blue eyes herself. By contrast, Claudia—unimpressed with Temple—wishes that the girl dancing with Bojangles in the film "The Little Colonel" (1935) were black. Ultimately the image of blue eyes becomes a metaphor for the judgment of a racist world. Adding insult to injury is a film in which a black woman desires to be like white beauty Hedy Lamar.

During the play (and novel), such societal indignities also find expression in the experiences of Pecola's alcoholic and abusive father. Cholly has developed a hatred of women that reaches back to a childhood racist situation in which two white male voyeurs watch him having sex. Eventually emotionally twisted Cholly will rape Pecola, who also suffers neglect from Pauline. Frieda and Claudia's Mama may be very strict, but she is loving.

For their part, Frieda and Claudia feel bad for pregnant and forlorn Pecola. Still, Frieda feels that all the Breedloves are peculiar. In fact, women with straw hats whisper about them—and seem to congregate for gossip with moves that somewhat call to mind Alvin Ailey choreography near the end of his iconic classic "Revelations." Naïve lost soul Pecola will consult charlatan Soaphead Church as she seeks to have a healthy childbirth.

As the strong eight-member cast play out the fortunes of the MacTeers and especially those of the Breedloves, the expressive original music of Justin Ellington and Douglas' ritual-like choreography complement the storytelling. Most of all, the actors themselves capture Morrison's poetic narrative as conveyed in Diamond's affecting stagecraft. Hadar Busia-Singleton finds all of Pecola's vulnerability. Brittany-Laurelle has Claudia's strong mindedness, while Alexandria King catches Frieda's changing feelings. Ramona Lisa Alexander captures Mama's tenacity. The standouts are McKenzie Frye—who sings with great feeling as frustrated Pauline—and Greg Alvarez Reid, riveting as deeply conflicted Cholly.

Diamond speaks of Morrison's soul in her essay. The Huntington staging of "The Bluest Eye" is a haunting celebration of that soul.