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The N.C. Central University Department of Theatre presented “Anna Lucasta” as their first play of 2002. The love story, written by Phillip Yordan, was a success on Broadway in the 1940s with its unusual (for the time) African American cast.

The play’s title character, Anna Lucasta, has been making a living in Brooklyn as a prostitute for several years after having been thrown out of the family house by her father, Joe.

When her family gets word that the son of Joe’s best friend is coming to town to find a wife, carrying a large sum of money as a bridal gift, they concoct a plan. They decide to bring Anna home to marry her off to the country boy and keep the cash. But they soon discover that he has plans of his own.

I thought the play was great. The cast and crew clearly put in a lot of hard work to make the play a success. The actors were — across the board — professional and strong.

Anna Lucasta (Eugenia Jennings) and her country beau Rudolph (Terry Banks) did a fantastic job ignoring the audience’s hoots and hollers as they pulled off the play’s much talked about kissing scene.

Eugenia Jennings, playing Anna, stood out with her subtle and confident interpretation of a prostitute trying her hand at love.

Terry Banks was a fine counterpart to Anna as an educated country man ready to overlook all flaws in favor of love.

Danny, the sailor played by Kermit Burns, had an even more tangible chemistry with Eugenia Jennings. In fact, I was surprised to realize that his character was not the real romantic lead for Anna.

Another surprise was the scene-stealing Blanche, played by freshman Shenelle Mays. Mays brought many laughs with her portrayal of an old, alcoholic barfly with sticky fingers. Despite her young age, Mays managed to pile on the years needed to pull her character off.

The cast as a whole was very solid, with further highlights from Kazemde Masud’s forceful portrayal of Frank, and Lorenzo Phillips’ impressive display of anger as the father feeling let down by his favorite daughter.

Director Linda Kerr Norflett obviously put together a cast, crew and set able to tell of love against all odds.

Though the realism went a bit too far with the cigarette stench coming from the stage, the audience was clearly captivated from the beginning to the end of the three hour production.