FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF, Journeymen, at the Chicago Cultural Center. Ntozake Shange’s 1976 “choreopoem” assembles seven “colored girls” (Lady in Orange, Lady in Purple, etc) who testify to the struggles that made them strong. A stirring ensemble piece, this 80-minute collage of poetry, movement, and song allows each woman to “sing her song of life,” derived from experiences of rape, selfish lovers, cultural dislocation, hot sex on graduation night, and disillusionment. The special strength of the Journeymen’s staging, by Michael Matthews and Frank Pullen, is the purposeful connection between the performers, created out of sincerity and communal concentration. Ebony Smith’s choreography confirms that solidarity.
