{"id":377675,"date":"2025-09-27T00:13:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T00:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/?p=377675"},"modified":"2025-09-27T16:43:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:43:19","slug":"the-brothers-size-in-nyc-continues-the-exploration-of-we-are-gathered-at-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/2025\/09\/27\/the-brothers-size-in-nyc-continues-the-exploration-of-we-are-gathered-at-arena\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Brothers Size\u2019 in NYC continues the exploration of \u2018We Are Gathered\u2019 at Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This past summer, DC audiences experienced<\/strong> the world premiere of We Are Gathered<\/em><\/a> at Arena Stage (directed by Kent Gash). The newest work by celebrated playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, We Are Gathered <\/em>traces the difficult romance between Tre and Free, two Black male artists considering marrying each other. But Tre struggles with fears of commitment, his difficult past, and the fact that he met Free while cruising at a park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I wrote about We Are Gathered <\/em><\/a>for this publication<\/a>, I found the play overwhelming and fascinating. Tre\u2019s attempt to move beyond his traumatic origins mirrored McCraney\u2019s desire to write beyond the adolescent protagonists that have defined his oeuvre. We Are Gathered <\/em>marked a career turning point for McCraney. The show acknowledged all of the playwright\u2019s creative influences and painful memories, but strove toward the future. We Are Gathered<\/em>\u2019s ending had a finality rarely seen in McCraney\u2019s plays, with Tre telling his lover, \u201cYou decided to be here while I ran in a circle. And now the circle is complete. The round \u2018o\u2019 of the world is formed here.”<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Alani iLongwec (Oshoosi) and Andr\u00e9 Holland (Ogun) in \u2018The Brothers Size\u2019 at The Shed, New York, August 30\u2013September 28, 2025. Photo by Marc J. Franklin. Courtesy of The Shed. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Now, a revival of McCraney\u2019s most famous play, The Brothers Size, <\/em>is playing at The Shed in New York City, a co-production<\/a> with Geffen Playhouse. The play (first produced in NYC at the Public Theatre in 2007 and presented by 1st Stage<\/a> in 2019) also follows two Black men: the boisterous Oshoosi Size comes out of incarceration to stay with his older brother, Ogun Size, a car mechanic. A \u201cround \u2018o\u2019 of the world\u201d is now staged literally at The Shed. At the beginning of the production, an actor pours white sand in a circle around the performance space, as if blessing a temporary altar. The script describes this moment as an \u201copening invocation [that] should be repeated for as long as needed to complete the ritual.\u201d In The Brothers Size,<\/em> characters try to achieve wholeness, but unlike in We Are Gathered<\/em>, their circle ultimately feels incomplete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brothers Size <\/em>is timely and timeless, but there\u2019s danger in McCraney revisiting such hallowed ground (he co-directs this Shed revival alongside Bijan Sheibani). How can McCraney move beyond coming-of-age narratives if he\u2019s revisiting past ones? If We Are Gathered<\/em> embraces the future, why is McCraney once again looking backward in The Brother Size<\/em>? Yet watching both plays within a few months, I found these tensions more illuminating than confusing. The circles staged in We Are Gathered <\/em>and The Brothers Size <\/em>overlap, making Tre and Free\u2019s lovely conclusion more unresolved, and making Oshoosi and Ogun\u2019s open-ended conclusion more final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brothers Size<\/strong><\/em> <\/em>has a recurring quality:<\/strong> strained conversations between the Size brothers refract through dreams and memory. Oshoosi\u2019s drawn to Elgba, a poetic friend from prison who also searches for freedom \u2014 and their connection takes a startling turn, undergirded by state violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any summary of The Brothers Size<\/em>\u2019s plot risks reducing the show to a tragedy. But McCraney\u2019s true focus is on how language creates simultaneous intimacy and distance. Characters narrate their own stage directions; their asides to the audience confirm their status as achingly real people and abstractions. When Oshoosi asks Ogun, \u201cWhy you got to be so hard all time?,\u201d the question is both a joke and an accusation. Why can\u2019t Ogun drop his hardened demeanor to show levity, grace? Why can\u2019t the hard world outside of this play deliver grace, too?<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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TOP: Malcolm Mays (Elegba) and Alani iLongwe (Oshoosi in \u2018The Brothers Size\u2019 at The Shed, New York, August 30\u2013September 28, 2025. Photo by Marc J. Franklin. Courtesy of The Shed. ABOVE: Nic Ashe (Free) and Kyle Beltran (Wallace Tre) in \u2018We Are Gathered\u2019 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, May 16\u2013June 15, 2025. Photo by T Charles Erickson Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Watching these productions of The Brothers Size <\/em>and We Are Gathered<\/em>, I\u2019m struck by how similarly they\u2019re staged. McCraney, Sheibani, and Gash place their performances in the round, with audiences on four sides. This allows asides and musical performances in both to feel surprisingly direct. We Are Gathered<\/em>\u2019s language also feels both intimate and distant. Tre\u2019s monologues reveal a tortured mind that can\u2019t plainly state how it feels. He\u2019s a perfect foil to Ogun, who saves a monologue for the right moment, and unleashes it with a simplicity that\u2019s devastating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Tre and Ogun feel like theatrical brothers. Whether they\u2019re verbose or silent, extroverted or repressed, Black men in McCraney\u2019s works (and America) still feel a desperate sense of dread. It\u2019d be tempting to trace a linear progression from The Brothers Size <\/em>to We Are Gathered<\/em>: the Size brothers yearn for freedom in the \u201cdistant present,\u201d and then Tre and Free actually experience more societal freedoms in 2025. However, there are moments in The Brothers Size <\/em>when characters feel utterly safe, and many moments in We Are Gathered<\/em> that acknowledge the anguish of 2025\u2019s political climate. Freedom in both plays feels arbitrary. Age, time, and circumstance won\u2019t necessarily save any of these characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCraney emphasizes this fact through his casting in The Shed\u2019s The Brothers Size<\/em>. Although the script notes that Ogun and Elegba are \u201clate 20s\u201d and Oshoosi is \u201cearly 20s,\u201d this production\u2019s cast includes longtime McCraney collaborators who are middle-aged. Alani iLongwe embodies Oshoosi with an overcompensating bravado, trapped in a pre-prison adolescence despite being physically older. Andr\u00e9 Holland\u2019s Ogun offers a steady counterweight, able to slow down the dialogue\u2019s tempo (an older Ogun makes his paternalism feel even more pointed). At first, I wanted to compare this casting to that of Dance Nation<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s older actors portraying their lost youth. However, the actors\u2019 mix of exuberance and weariness forces me to acknowledge that the Size brothers were never granted the privilege of \u201cyouth\u201d or \u201cinnocence\u201d in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, the most refreshing element of We Are Gathered <\/em><\/strong>was its unabashed queerness. McCraney\u2019s works often follow queer men, but their sexuality might be a burgeoning identity (Eric in Wig Out!<\/em><\/a>) or an open secret (Pharus in Choir Boy<\/em><\/a>). In contrast, Tre and Free proudly state, \u201cWe\u2019re here, we\u2019re queer,\u201d enrich themselves in queer media, and surround themselves within the LGBTQ+ community. So I was hesitant watching The Brothers Size <\/em>in NYC \u2014 would queerness be forced into subtext or subterfuge? Elegba offers a particularly thorny character to stage nowadays: without careful direction, his libidinal movements can feel like entrapment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, this production of The Brothers Size <\/em>doesn\u2019t lose the queerness of Tre and Free. McCraney and Sheibani wisely bring some of Ogun\u2019s stillness into Elegba\u2019s scenes. Actor Malcolm Mays often portrays Elegba like he\u2019s trapped in a reverie, not completely in control of his hands or mouth. Sexuality is a secure, inherent part of Elegba\u2019s identity. But it\u2019s still a mystery to him, and to us.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Kyle Beltran (Wallace Tre) and Nic Ashe (Free) in \u2018We Are Gathered\u2019 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, May 16\u2013June 15, 2025. Photo by T Charles Erickson Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

McCraney\u2019s other works also now alleviate some of the paranoia around The Brother Size<\/em>\u2019s queer desires. Ogun plays many roles for Oshoosi throughout the show: role model, friend, bully, father figure, twin, mirror. Feeling drawn to someone of the same gender \u2014 not knowing if it\u2019s identification, attraction, or jealousy \u2014 is a uniquely queer experience, but it\u2019s also one that\u2019s taboo. 2007 audiences watching The Brothers Size <\/em>might have been shocked to witness this dynamic, but McCraney\u2019s other art (Moonlight<\/em>, We Are Gathered<\/em>) now prepares me to recognize this dynamic across multiple narratives, and multiple lifetimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth noting that although I\u2019ve seen three McCraney productions \u2014 We Are Gathered<\/em>, The Brothers Size<\/em>, and Choir Boy <\/em>on Broadway \u2014 the queer sex scenes in all were staged abstractly. But queerness encompasses different kinds of physical performance, too. We Are Gathered <\/em>featured an absurdly funny parody of \u201ctrade\u201d masculinity that quickly became fabulous. Something similar happens here. Oshoosi and Ogun lip-sync to a song late in the show, and the smooth comedic gags take on the camp of drag. Even after a Size brother\u2019s painful confession of \u201cI fucked up,\u201d I\u2019m reminded of Michaela Angela Davis\u2019s assertion<\/a> that \u201c[Black style] couldn\u2019t be burned up or shot up or locked up. You can\u2019t fuck it up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though The Brothers Size <\/em>functions as a complete story,<\/strong> it\u2019s often understood as a brief glimpse into a long, emergent history. Ogun and Oshoosi are named after Yoruban spirits, so their personal woes take on the weight of a spiritual struggle. The Brothers Size <\/em>is the middle chapter of McCraney\u2019s trilogy The Brother\/Sister Plays<\/em>, so Ogun is haunted by the choices of a previous play. Maybe Ogun senses that his actions will haunt future stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, Ogun\u2019s actions haunt all of American theater. McCraney\u2019s The Brother\/Sister Plays <\/em>has inspired too many contemporary plays to count (it\u2019s so influential that, like the past, you can\u2019t escape it). I\u2019m reminded of a scene where Elegba brings a broken-down car to Ogun\u2019s shop, and Ogun remarks, \u201c\u2026those one of those American Classics. \/ Those, \u2018I will run longer and stronger then the human \/ Body\u2019 cars. Man, please that car got plenty of run in it.\u201d The Brothers Size<\/em> has since become its own American classic. The play will outlast all of the bodies onstage in NYC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere in this country \u2014 in a college classroom, in a regional theater, in a reader\u2019s imagination, in an audience\u2019s memory \u2014 Oshoosi and Ogun are running. They\u2019re collapsing or returning or leaving each other. Even with the benefit of safety and time, maybe it\u2019s a sign of grace that McCraney still joins their forever struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet part of what made We Are Gathered <\/em>so exciting to me was its dedication to closing the book on the past, to finally <\/em>achieving some kind of peace. The Brothers Size <\/em>may always be trapped in the middle of generational, spiritual, and theatrical narratives. But McCraney gracefully takes some of the decisiveness of We Are Gathered <\/em>and shifts it over to this Shed production. I\u2019ve reread The Brothers Size <\/em>countless times, but it was only watching this performance \u2014 and somehow feeling McCraney\u2019s metatheatrical presence \u2014 that the play\u2019s ending finally <\/em>felt like a relief. Just like Tre and Free, McCraney lives with a freedom the Size brothers can only imagine: McCraney can safely revisit his past. He can return home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A revival of Tarell Alvin McCraney\u2019s most famous work prompts a long-form essay that places two of his queer plays in conversation. By NATHAN PUGH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":377680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-377675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews"},"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018The Brothers Size\u2019 in NYC continues the exploration of \u2018We Are Gathered\u2019 at Arena - 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He is gay, biracial, and Filipino American. Pugh\u2019s writing explores how identity is performed both on and off the stage (with special attention paid to race, sexuality, and gender). His bylines include Theatrely, Smithsonian magazine, DCist, NPR\u2019s Code Switch and It\u2019s Been a Minute. From August 2022 to March 2025, he served as a copywriter\/coordinator for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. BA English & Theater: Wesleyan University. 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