I had the pleasure of seeing the play “Fabulation or the re-education of Undine,” twice. The play is an orginal work by Lynn Nottage and premiered in 2004 under the direction of Kate Whoriskey.
Fabulation focuses around Undine, a woman in her late 30s, who is at the peak of her career. She is CEO of her own public relations firm, newly wedded and possibly pregnant. She seems to have it going on, but unexpectedly goes from having it all to having nothing.
Undine finds out her husband has embezzled money from her firm. Broke, pregnant and homeless, she returns home to her family in Brooklyn and has to face the trials and tribulations of being a pregnant black woman in a blue-collar society.
Even though I caught a few slip-ups between the actors and mispronunciations of words, I have nothing bad to say about the play.
I was rolling around laughing throughout the whole play. Aside from the main character’s funny, sarcastic monologues and punch lines, the play has a deeper message.
Undine’s friends were nowhere to be found when she needed help. She completely erased her embarrassing, “low-class” family from her life. She even changed her name, and, though she had written off her family, they were still there to catch her when she fell.
As a child, my dad would say that family will always be there long after friends are gone.
He was right. This is my second year at Florida A&M University, and all those “friends” I had in high school are nowhere to be found when I run out of gas on the street, when I am short on rent or even if I just need some advice and motivation to continue school, but my family is.