Monday, June 02, 2025

The Harlem Doll Palace

Lenon Hoyte (Aunt Len) was the founder and proprietor of Aunt Len’s Doll and Toy Museum in Harlem. She died in 1999. In the amazing Harlem Doll Palace, which just finished a run at the HERE Arts Center, Aunt Len's dolls refuse to let her die, keeping her alive by recounting their own pasts and hers. Written and starring Alva Rogers, The Harlem Doll Palace deals in a form of fantasy sometimes completely fantastical (mermaids) and sometimes heartbreakingly real (slavery and generational trauma). 


Photo: Richard Termine


The dolls are brought to life by Mecca Akbar, Thalya David, Charlotte Lily Gaspard, Marcella Murray, and Ash Winkfield, fabulous puppeteers, actors, and singers. The combination of techniques, writing, performing, staging, and music often results in sheer magic. (The songs and scoring by Bruce Monroe are fabulous.)
Segues between sections would help in terms of pacing and clarity, and maybe the show could be trimmed a bit, but these are small things compared to the wonder and emotion on view.

Wendy Caster



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