PASSION PLAY | Tensions rise in ‘Walk Like a Man’ as the play takes on hot topic issues like domestic violence, religion and even DADT but from an African-American lesbian perspective.

An all-female cast going on about romance, life’s dramas and sex isn’t something new — and definitely not new to LGBT audiences. Hello? Sex and the City, thank you very much.
But while SATC is famously about four straight white women who behave like gay men, Laurinda D. Brown saw life a whole lot differently.
With Walk Like a Man, Brown has adapted her 2006 Lambda Literary Award-winning book of short stories for the stage, describing the gamut of lesbian relationships, all from a black female perspective. The production gets a one-day, two-performance run this weekend in Garland.
Touted as steamy and lustful, the book version of Walk Like a Man was both erotic and enlightening. Brown brings the sexy stuff to the stage version as well, but she brings the heavy stuff, too. The play’s slogan — “It’s about life … not lifestyles” — touches on the comedy and tragedy of everyday lesbian life that includes topics such as “runaway youth, love and religious controversies, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, safe sex and affairs in the workplace,” according to the Positive Scribe Productions’ website. The site also mentions that Man is the first off-Broadway play written by a black lesbian. The cast is a variety of women of all ages and sizes, and it addresses bigger picture issues like labels and stereotypes.
The play, along with Brown’s other work, Bois Don’t Cry, was recently selected as part of the D.C. Black Theatre Festival held in June.
Brown may not be Langston Hughes or Tony Kushner — yet — but she’s definitely making her mark in the LGBT universe of playwrights and authors. And she’s capturing the attention of all the right people: Famed African-American author Zane is a fan and the Human Rights Campaign called the show a “must-see.”

Just know that Walk Like A Man is heavy in displaying adult situations, thus the play isn’t open to those underage. Makes sense.

— Rich Lopez

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition Jan. 21, 2011.