Rhythm Darlings’ ladies play the blues at Essential Theatre

Playwright Vynnie Meli’s Jim Crow and the Rhythm Darlings draws from a seemingly bottomless wellspring of drama. Winner of the 2009 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award for Georgia playwrights, Rhythm Darlings depicts an all-woman, mostly African-American jazz band and the hostility they face due to their race and gender in WWII-era Mississippi.

At one point, peace-making drummer Vi (Enisha Brewster) explains that the International Rhythm Darlings bears the word “International” in its name because its ranks include women of other races, not just African-Americans. The Darlings’ multiracial makeup isn’t a problem in Jim Crow-era South because, “They’re not Negroes, but they’re not white.” Trouble comes from the band’s newest member, Rhoda (Rachel Bodenstein), a last-minute addition to their tour who unquestionably is white.

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(Photo courtesy Essential Theater)