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Amongst the many surprises that was thrown up in the city of
Lagos during the Easter period, was Sheryl Lee Ralph’s ‘Sometimes I Cry.’ The
one-woman show was a performance of stories inspired by women living
positively, and those affected by HIV/AIDS.

The performance came to Lagos under the auspices of Sheryl’s non-profit
DIVA Foundation, as part of the Lagos Black Heritage Festival. The one-woman
act has been performed across the United States and elsewhere.

An hour and a half after the show was meant to kick off, Sheryl
appeared on stage in a bejewelled Ankara skirt and a long-sleeved black jersey
top. Her hair was sleeked back and packed neatly at the centre of her head. She
could have been anybody, which was just her plan for the evening.

“Tonight,” she said, “I have some stories to share with you;
just a few stories from my sisters from around the world.”

No more silence

She set a good mood for the audience with stories about her
Tony-award nominated debut role on Broadway in 1981. She was Deena Jones in
Dreamgirls and “got to share the stage with some of the most talented people of
my generation.” Some of these talented people were soon to start dying off from
an unknown ailment. When its name was eventually known, “Shh! Nobody was saying
anything.” This disease was HIV/AIDS.

The personal decision for Sheryl to do something came in 2002
when she heard a group of women sharing stories about HIV/AIDS. These were not
just stories, though, but the womens’ individual experiences.

When she first started telling these stories in the US, people
reacted with disbelief, citing the example of the “good-looking” former
basketball star, Magic Johnson.

“Yes, Magic Johnson looks good and he ought to,” she said
pointing out the sportsman’s wealth and access to “platinum healthcare” and
“highly active anti-retroviral treatment”, which the former athlete takes
“regularly, the way he should, on time.” She also emphasised that the former
basketball star got tested early. But then, “People do not care about their
health until they don’t have it.” She called it “sad” that a preventable
disease continues to spread in silence. “People do not want to talk about it
because you know what? People do not have sex.” This had the audience laughing
in agreement. It, however, was not going to be laughter all the way.

Living positively

The artist was already in full performance mode when she
‘became’ her first character. She deftly switches accents to represent a
well-read city girl, and “entrepreneur of the year with the business to watch”,
who is abandoned by her husband after she discovers she is HIV positive.

“I guess my living didn’t fit into his schedule of playing
dutiful husband to a dying wife, especially since I am positive and he is
negative.” She also develops a hump on her back, an incurable yeast infection,
suffers drastic weight loss, and soils herself “in a very upscale 5-star
restaurant for everyone to see.” A weeping Sheryl has the audience spell-bound
at this point with her uncanny reenactment of the powerful woman reduced to
cleaning her own waste with expensive clothes. She however, recovers herself,
“And I walked out of that restaurant, just the same way that I walked in: with
my head held high and all eyes on me, acknowledging the end of a good day.” Her
tears and her situation echo in the audience as many in the audience are moved
to tears as well.

Grandma, the 68-year-old character had “friends talking about
osteoporosis (and) friends forgetting to talk about Alzheimer’s.” She’d had
five children with her husband whom she’d known since she was 11 and he was 11
and a half. She however, gets the disease after her husband’s death, from an
affair with a friend. The doctor tells her sex has changed from what it was
back in her day.

Being the faithful party in a relationship is not always
guarantee against infection. That’s the lesson from the next sketch, where a
young African asylum seeker in America told the story of how her sister was
lucky to get married to “the man she liked.” The wife was faithful to her
husband, who was unfaithful.

The long-distance lorry driver spent excess money on “sex-women”
and refused to use protection when sleeping with his wife. The narrator watched
her sister suffer physical abuse and emaciate as a result of HIV. She herself
suffers stigmatisation after her sister’s death and burial in an unmarked grave.

No ‘victim song’

The audience had the choice to pick what story they wanted to
hear next. It was the story of a ‘ghetto-fabulous’ care-free woman, who was a
sex maniac. She eventually contracts the disease and spreads it with no qualms.
The morning after though, she is suicidal. The mark of this attempt remains
with her still, reminding her of her one-time irresponsibility.

Sheryl had the audience laughing the most with her
characterisation of this persona. Strutting her stuff across the stage, she showed
she still had groove at the age of 53. She effortlessly became and reenacted
each character with the ease of a superb actor. Her voice and characterisation
never slipped, even when her microphone began to act up.

Through these stories, Sheryl pointed out the need for people to
be responsible, to respect, love and lift themselves up in the face of the
deadly HIV/AIDS virus, which, she said, knew no race or talent. “I hope that
maybe just one of you would have heard something because we are HIV positive, and
sometimes I cry.”

Her uplifting and emotive 90-minute performance over, the
audience gradually erupted into a standing ovation and shouts of “We love you!”
She also thanked the audience for coming, despite probably having other
appointments. An interactive session followed where members of the audience
said they had been inspired by Sheryl’s stories to go out and do something.

Her opening song says this clearly enough: “I am an endangered species, but
I sing no victim song. I am a woman. I am an artist and I know where my voice
belongs.”