I can't remember the last time I called anything electrifying, but the 2010 Steppenwolf Theatre production of Tarell Alvin McCraney's trilogy, "The Brother/Sister Plays," was exactly that for me. Set in the Louisiana bayou, it did with Yoruba mythology what Eugene O'Neill did with Greek: gave archetypal resonance to American lives.
I was particularly jolted by the first third, In the Red and Brown Water, which tells the story of Oya—a poor, young black woman with a talent for running—and a world that wants her barefoot and pregnant.…
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