INTERVIEW: Brittany Inge finds present-day resonance in ‘Home’
Photo: Home stars, from left, Stori Ayers, Tory Kittles and Brittany Inge. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by Polk & Co. with permission.
Home, playing through July 21 at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Todd Haimes Theatre, is billed as an American classic receiving its first-ever revival. The show is set in the past, following the character of Cephus Miles (Tory Kittles) as he travels from his farm life in North Carolina to the big city and back. Along the way he meets a host of characters, all of whom are portrayed by Woman One (Brittany Inge) and Woman Two (Stori Ayers). Inge serves double duty as well, portraying Pattie Mae Wells throughout the narrative. She is the woman Cephus loves and who keeps him motivated on this life-changing journey.
Although Home, written by Samm-Art Williams and directed by Kenny Leon, ostensibly tells a tale from the recent past, there are many reverberations for today’s society to consider. Themes of family, friendship, love, loss, war, pacifism, racism, opportunity (gained and lost), addiction, hurt, God and celebration are all present, offering audience members at the Todd Haimes Theatre many topics to ponder during the play’s 90 minutes.
Inge is making her Broadway debut in Home. Her previous theatrical credits include Father Comes Home From the Wars, Holler If Ya Hear Me, The Ballad of Klook and Vinette and for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. She’s also known for her film and TV work, including roles in Atlanta, Dynasty, The Resident and Lethal Legacy. Most tellingly, Inge writes in her Playbill biography the following line on the significance of Home: “Brittany would like to thank Kenny Leon and Roundabout for the opportunity to revive and reimagine this “big, joyous, life-affirming, theatrical poem.””
“I would summarize it as exhilarating, exhausting and expansive,” Inge said about this Broadway journey. “First of all, making a Broadway debut is a huge deal. It’s something that’s been on my career bucket list forever, but also this piece specifically and the themes that it speaks to have been really expansive for me just personally, spiritually. Cephus’ journey going through all the ups and downs of life and having to play that out night after night has been really healing for me in a number of ways.”
Inge pointed out that Home was written in the late 1970s, but the evidence she has gathered over the past few weeks, after watching the narrative impact audiences on Broadway, is that the themes are still relevant for today’s society. She calls the play both beautiful and sad.
“So much of what Cephus goes through and experiences and bears witness to I think we’re still dealing with today, and so I think it’s a very necessary story,” she said. “I think it’s important as artists that we continue to reflect humanity back to itself. If that’s where we are, I’m just glad that we’re doing our part in trying to keep revealing humanity to itself and hope the changes continue to come.”
The actor became familiar with Williams’ play in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Roundabout reached out to her for their Refocus project; they wanted to stage a virtual reading of Home, and they asked Inge to participate.
“This was when everything was still online and on Zoom, so Kenny was directing the reading,” Inge said. “And they asked me to be part of it as Woman Two, and that was the first time I came to even know about this piece. And then three years later, it came back around with the opportunity to do a full production [as Woman One].”
Throughout this process, Inge has been impressed by the multiple interpretations of the profound play.
“I think the overall response and feedback that we get is that people leave with something,” she said. “They leave with the message that they were brought there to receive, and what I mean by that is Cephus’ journey, he encounters all sorts of people throughout his life’s journey. And myself and Stori Ayers, the other young lady in the show, we embody all of those characters, so often I hear people saying, ‘Oh, this reminded me of that person,’ or ‘I saw myself up there.’ So I think that people are seeing themselves and members of their family reflected back at them, and so I think the impact is just really in the relatability of Cephus’ story. Even though he’s a Black man from the south, works the land, everyone can see themselves reflected in what he goes through or the people he encounters, and that has been the general feedback.”
Inge added: “Sometimes we’re the Greek chorus, and we’re commenting on what’s happening. Sometimes we’re part of what’s happening. It’s really fascinating, in some ways Shakespearean even. My favorite thing actually about my track is that, because I play Pattie Mae Wells, who is Cephus’ childhood sweetheart, but I also play a variety of characters throughout his life, I kind of get the experience of both — playing someone with a whole arc throughout a show, which would be Pattie Mae. We see her. We meet her very young, and we see later in life in her 40s. And I get to do the business that Woman Two also does, which is bouncing in and out of these characters. I think the biggest challenge and most rewarding part for me in the process was finding a way to ground and root Pattie Mae because I always come back to her, and then just also being able to flesh out those other characters, even though I only become some of them for a line or two. So, that was probably the big challenge, but also the most rewarding part of the process was fleshing out all those people, whether you only meet them for a line or you meet them for 10 pages. I want them all to be people that folks feel like they want to know more about.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Home, featuring Brittany Inge, continues through July 21 at the Todd Haimes Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets to the Roundabout Theatre Company production.
