Review: Five grabbiest things about Pillsbury House Theatre’s ‘A Walless Church’

It’s the most bodacious and surprising show onstage in Minnesota now, one that either captures a viewer with its imagination and lyricism or, potentially, leaves them lost.

AriDy Nox’s “A Walless Church: The Black Woman’s Guide to Creating God,” up in a world premiere at Minneapolis’ Pillsbury House Theatre, is not so much a play as an evocative ritual that finds the divine in the bodies and on the tongues of a trinity of normal yet extraordinary women.

In this “Church,” godlings played by Aimee K. Bryant, Nubia Monks and Essence Renae slip between worlds and realms, snapping fingers, changing lights and evacuating one set of issues for another as they take us on a 90-minute roller coaster of psychic and spiritual dilemmas. God, in this show, is a spirit that’s called out not just from the ether but from their inner beings, and the characters’ task is to clear the way for that divinity to flow.

Here are the five grabbiest things in this “Church.”

1. A poetic production. The staging by Signe Harriday boasts simple but effective design, excellent acting by this trio of dynamos, and flawless execution. The one-act takes place in a circular set covered with sheer strips so that it resembles a mosquito net over a tropical bed. Bryant, Monks and Renae play, respectively, Nona, Mo and Oru, members of a family wrestling with tensions at high moments such as death and wedding.

In one of the interlocking narratives, Oru, the mother, has died and willed her home to one of her daughters. But Oru’s spirit haunts the house, and plans to for years, if not decades, to come. In another, Nona is getting married and her two girlfriends, co-maids of honor, are warring over long-held grievances. And in a third story line, one daughter in a same-sex marriage seeks her elder’s blessing as the partners think about having a child.

2. The divining trio. Bryant, who is known for the magnanimity and supple soul she brings to the stage, doesn’t sing in “Church,” but her performance is marked by a rich musicality and lyricism. Also a dramatic actor with range, Monks recently headlined “The Color Purple” at Theater Latte Da. She displays a protean spirit, evoking Mo with poetic power and verve. Renae, who has been in shows on Amazon Prime, holds her own, performing with aplomb and helping the trio feel like a theatrical band that is expert at conducting spirits.

3. Defying stereotypes. There’s a meme on social media, mostly on TikTok, that begins, “You know, Black people … ” before being abruptly cut off. For whatever follows such a broad setup is likely to be a gross generalization. “Guide” starts out similarly — “The thing about Black women,” then Monks cuts it off, saying, “Wait! It’s important to know that there are many ways to make god.” Nox’s script, as interpreted by Harriday and these players, expands rather than limits the capacity, intelligence and heart of these characters. The women have sass, yes, but they also have the whole range of human emotions and dreaming.

4. They run it back. Later in the play, after all the outpouring of honesty and truth, the script goes back to the problematic setup, and it’s no longer a pitfall. “The thing about Black women is … They are a space of worship untethered, a space of blessings unfettered. They can pray most things better. ... Their souls talk without them knowing, without them realizing, without them needing to. And in the secretive parts of their spirits, they were crying out for help. And in the hungriest parts of their guts, they were afraid they were forgetting god’s face. And we’ve heard them, and we saw, it wasn’t a matter of seeing. It was a matter of knowing what they were looking at.”

5. “Walless church,” take me away. Sometimes a theater work is like an undertow. If you fight it, you will have a warm time. But if you let it take you to where it wants to go, you may end up in a place of new adventures, even if it’s far from shore. That’s true for “Church,” a work full of wit, virtuosity and laughter that lands as its own mystical offering.

When: 7 p.m. Thu.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Oct. 13.

Where: Pillsbury House + Theatre, 3501 Chicago Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $30 regular or pick-your-price. 612-825-0459 or pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org.