‘Nina Simone: Four Women’ opens at Merrimack Repertory Theater

Celina Colby

Celina Colby is an arts and travel reporter with a fondness for Russian novels.... VIEW BIO

In 1966, Nina Simone’s song “Four Women” sent shockwaves through radios all across the United States and ignited controversy for its archetypal descriptions of black women. Now, that song has been shaped by Christina Ham into a moving stage show, “Nina Simone: Four Women,” running at the Merrimack Repertory Theater in Lowell through March 8.

The show takes place in the wreckage of the 16th Street Baptist Church that was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, killing four young girls. Simone is walking through the remains, trying to find the words for a song about the tragedy. She meets three other women also trying to make sense of their place in the story and in the Civil Rights fight, and together they represent the four women in Simone’s song.

Dionne Addai as Nina Simone. PHOTO: MEG MOORE

Dionne Addai, who plays Simone, says, “I think telling black stories is really important. And I think Nina Simone’s music is very beautiful, but her struggle to find her voice as an activist was also really powerful.” The performance weaves Simone’s music into the discussion among the women of their experiences, including “Mississippi Goddam” and “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” among other pieces. The four girls murdered in the bombing haunt the church rubble, reminding the women of the oppression that unifies them as they gradually find common ground and empathy for each other.

During the 90-minute show, the four women on stage grapple with issues like colorism and violent versus nonviolent protest.

Aunt Sarah (Deanna Reed-Foster) is a maid in a wealthy white family’s home; she represents African American enslavement, always serving others. Throughout the show she struggles to find her place in the resistance, having never fought on that scale before.

Saffronia (Ariel Richardson) is a light-skinned woman, the product of a nonconsensual relationship between a black woman and a white man. Her challenge is to convince the other women in the room that her experience as a black woman is just as valid as theirs, despite her light skin color.

Sweet Thing (Alanna Lovely) is a prostitute, trying to find both acceptance in her community and a sense of self that goes beyond her employment.

Addai says that the archetype characters only show the surface of the complex women underneath, but they do serve to show that that there are many different black female experiences and they are all valid. This and many of the other issues discussed in the show are still on the
table today.

“I think there’s still a lot of hurt within the black community because of the way people are being treated,” says Addai. “Today black churches are still attacked by white supremacists. People are still protesting because of police brutality. Even though in some ways things have improved, there’s still a lot of work to be done.”