Pretty Fire.(Manhattan Theatre Club Stage II, New York, NY)

The difference between Charlayne Woodard's Pleat and most other one-person shows is like the difference between watching a movie in faded black and white or the most vivid color. Pleat, a sequel to an earlier solo piece, Pretty Fire, details Woodard's adolescence, in which, as a black teenager in Albany, NY, she learned to cope with her large family, her growing political involvement, and her emerging sexuality. Most of all, her story is influenced by the presence of Neat, her brain-damaged aunt, who, despite her disabilities, is nurtured by her family circle, who becomes mysteriously pregnant, and who, later, commits suicide, a scene that gives the play its shocking, unexpected …