Sha Cage offers a one-woman look at 'U/G/L/Y'

A recent conversation about her latest theater piece sent Sha Cage and her director E.G. Bailey on a nostalgic trip to the playgrounds of childhood memory:

"U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, you ugly! Ooh! Ooh! You ugly!"

That is the title of her new work, being produced this weekend at the Guthrie Theater. "U/G/L/Y" is a one-woman show that explores questions of beauty, which start early and run deep.

Cage said the show is about the myriad, sometimes contradictory, ways women see themselves.

"It's internal, external," she said. "It's the difficulty of waking up in the morning and smiling at what you see in the mirror."

"U/G/L/Y" is produced by Cage's Freestyle Theatre and presented by the Guthrie. It blends words, music, movement and video for a close look at the layers of our fascination with appearance.

"There are these girls born into bodies they wish they could return. They learn to live in the skin they are in because there's no return policy, baby. These girls who refuse to look at their reflection for fear of what it might reveal," Cage intones in the show.

Violinist Kate Pehrson provides musical accompaniment, much of it improvised. She quoted Bailey's ideas about "unpacking" the words we use to describe ourselves and others.

"When you give a term like 'ugly' or 'beautiful' to anyone anywhere in the world, there are worlds of meanings within that," she said. "And you do have to unpack it because it does mean something different to everyone."

This is a complex issue, built on generations of human experience and shifting societal perceptions. It deals with power, gender and race. As an African-American woman, Sha Cage doesn't approach it lightly.

"I'm not afraid of the word 'ugly,'" she said. "I grew up with it."

Cage says "U/G/L/Y" is about finding inner strength in the face of difficulty and hardship. Last year, a severe illness threatened her mother. Cage said that experience changed her personal perception of beauty.

The audience will have input too. Director E.G. Bailey explained that the team is recreating the famed doll experiments from the late 1940s. Subjects asked to choose between dolls identical other than skin and hair color usually preferred the light-skinned doll, even when the subject was a person of color. Bailey said the Guthrie version involves a twist.

"We are actually going to have four live dolls that will be 'on display,'" he said.

"Wait!" Cage interrupted. "We are giving this away! Are we giving this away?"

"No," said Bailey.

"Is this a secret?" asked Cage. "OK. We can talk."

Yes, there will be four real women in the lobby. Audience members will choose which they prefer. The results will be revealed at the end of the show.

It's a powerful, unsettling idea. Musician Kate Pehrson said that as a white person she knows many people don't want to talk about these issues. She sees this weekend's performances of "U/G/L/Y" as a chance to overcome that reluctance.

"To be in this building, to work with these people, to have these audiences, I think is an amazing, golden opportunity to have a conversation," she said.

But the opportunity is brief. The show runs only Thursday through Sunday, in the Guthrie's Dowling Studio.