REVIEW: JAJA'S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING—La Jolla Playhouse
- TheShowReport
- May 17
- 5 min read
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
Direct from Broadway, this dazzling production welcomes you into Jaja’s bustling shop in Harlem, where a lively and eclectic group of West African hair braiders create masterpieces on the heads of neighborhood women. When their uncertain circumstances boil over, this tight-knit group must confront what it means to be outsiders in the place they call home.
JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING is a 2023 comedic play written by Ghanaian-American writer, playwright and actress, Jocelyn Bioh, whose Broadway credits include “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” She has performed in regional and Off-Broadway productions of “An Octoroon,” “Bootycandy,” and “For Colored Girls.” She has written many of her own plays that have been produced in national and collegiate theaters, including “Nollywood Dreams” and “School Girls, Or, The African Mean Girls Play.” She’s also a writer on the Hulu show, “Tiny, Beautiful Things.”
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding in Harlem is a salon full of funny, whip-smart, talented women ready to make you look and feel nice-nice. Every day, a lively and eclectic group of West African immigrant hair braiders are creating masterpieces on the heads of neighborhood women. On this particularly muggy summer day, Jaja’s rule-following daughter Marie is running the shop while her mother prepares for her courthouse, green-card wedding — to a man no one seems to particularly like. Just like her mother, Dreamer Marie is trying to secure her future; she’s just graduated high school and all she wants to do is go to college.
While Marie deals with the customers’ and stylists’ laugh-out-loud drama, news pierces the hearts of the women of the salon, galvanizing their connections and strengthening the community they have longed to make in the United States. During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and friendships will be tested.
The play (directed by Whitney White and running from May 17th through June 15th at the Mandell Weiss Theatre) brings to life the women at the heart of these shops - women boasting bold laughs and heavy hearts, who twist and manipulate hair until their fingers swell from the effort, without frill or excessive polish, exposing the full scope of Black womanhood with its joys, delights, pain and treasured moments.
Jocelyn Bioh draws her characters with sharp skill and provides them with colorfully contrasted personalities. And as the day wears on and we catch glimpses of the difficulties, minor and major, of their experience, the playwright subtly underscores how their lives are all circumscribed by their uncertain status.
Meanwhile, Director White is in ultimate control, bringing an uplifting and inspiring production to the La Jolla Playhouse Stage. A cast of fourteen extremely talented actors portray seventeen roles, with the five women who work in the hair braiding salon at the center of the action.
While Jaja (Victoire Charles) is much talked about through the 95-minute, intermission-free play, she doesn’t appear until quite close to the end of the show. What happens to her, however, very much affects those who work in her salon, including Jordan Rice as Marie, Jaja’s smart and energetic daughter; Claudia Logan as the veteran but aging Bea; Tiffany Renee Johnson as the music-loving, eager-to-dance Aminata; Bisserat Tseggai as Miriam, the newest braider — a single mom eager to bring her young daughter to live with her in the U.S.; and finally, Aisha Sougou as the irrepressible and rising star Ndidi.
These five women hail from countries like Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria, and constantly trade stories, triumphs, and gossip throughout the workday. Typically, they compete for customers and even advise one another on marriage and romance. They also talk about their boss, Jaja, who is supposed to be getting married on this particular day, and from their talk, we learn that Jaja’s impending marriage is going to be very complicated, to say the least.
The costumes in this production (Dede Ayite) are an absolute delight, combining brightly colored African textiles with typical U.S. streetwear, while expressing the distinctive personalities of each character. David Zinn’s scenic design captures the Harlem location of Jaja’s, down to the corrugated steel shutters that cover the salon when it’s closed. And part of what this play does so well is to dramatize the work of braiding as well as the sense of community created in the salon. The hairdressers set to work weaving, lacing, knitting and twining, and through deft use of various wigs (from wig styler Nikiya Mathis), they create the illusion of completing a process that normally takes hours.
The women, of course, have their jealousies and occasional spats, and yet, they are very much a sisterhood — a fact that is made evident by the events of the gut-wrenching conclusion. They convey the concept of “Black Joy,” seizing opportunities to express themselves in dance, laughter, and celebration. It’s an immigrant community that is humanized and particularized — each woman has a different origin and different circumstances — and yet all are clearly a collective unit, not just economically but through their creative spirit and energy as well. It’s the vibrancy and humor of these women that make the shocking conclusion all the more disturbing. And yet we come away knowing that it is this very same vibrant spirit that will allow these women to survive, in one way or another.
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS, JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING; Written by JOCELYN BIOH; Directed by WHITNEY WHITE; Original Music/Sound Design by JUSTIN ELLINGTON; Scenic Design by DAVID ZINN; Lighting Design by JIYOUN CHANG; Costume Design by DEDE AYITE; Wigs and Hair Design by NIKIYA MATHIS; Video Design by STEFANIA BULBARELLA; Sensitivity Specialist ANN C. JAMES; Dialect and Vocal Coach JACQUELINE SPRINGFIELD; Director of Production BECCA DUHAIME; General Manager RYAN MEISHEID; Stage Manager MELANIE J. LISBY; Asst Stage Manager BRILLIAN QI-BELL.
CAST: MYSIA ANDERSON-WHITE (Understudy: Jaja/Bea/Jennifer) “White,” “Lonnie's Lament,” “Refuse It!”; MELANIE BREZILL (Michelle/Chrissy/LaNiece) Broadway/National Tour: “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “The Book of Mormon,” “Mamma Mia!;” LEOVINA CHARLES (Vanessa/Sheila/Radia) Broadway: “The Lion King,” “Lempicka,” “I Am Antigone;” VICTOIRE CHARLES (Jaja) Broadway: “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” “Golden Age,” “Ruined;” DEBORA CRABBE (Understudy: Miriam/Ndidi/Aminata) “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!,” “School Girls;” MIA ELLIS (Jennifer) “The Amen Corner,” “Fairview,” “The Mountaintop;” ONYE EME-AKWARI (James/Franklin/Olu/Eric) “Spirits to Enforce,” Broadway: “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding;” TIFFANY RENEE JOHNSON (Aminata) “Jaja's African Hair Braiding,” “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” “Chlorine Sky;” CLAUDIA LOGAN (Bea) “Six Characters,” “Exception to the Rule,” “Push Party;” JORDAN RICE (Marie) “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” “Swagger” on Apple TV+, feature film: “One True Loves;” AISHA SOUGOU (Ndidi) “Beehive,” “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus;” DONAE SWANSON (Understudy: Marie/Vanessa/Sheila/Radia) “As You Like It,” “Twelfth Night,” “A Midsummer Night's Dream;” VANDOUS STRIPLING II (Understudy: James/Franklin/Olu/Eric) “Henry VI,Parts one and two,” “Twelfth Night,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor;” BISSERAT TSEGGAI (Miriam) “The Jungle,” “For All the Women Who Thought They Were Mad.”
JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING is a co-production with Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Chicago Shakespeare Theater, in association with Madison Wells Live & LaChanze. For Tickets, see www.lajollaplayhouse.org
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