Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Carol Rosegg ©2025  Chanel Carroll as Rosie Woodard (standing) and Christopher G. Roberts as WWII vet Isaac Woodard, Jr.

It's awfully tempting to call Reflections of a Heart a labor of love. After all, it was written, directed by and starring the same individual who even includes the inspiration for the piece in the playbill. But as this dramatically awkward, risible bio-play makes clear pretty early on, the only labor is on behalf of the audience. A two-hour plus play with barely enough fully-realized intent to reach the sixty-minute mark, Reflections leaves you with the impression that you're still not hearing its central character's full, unalloyed story.

Christopher G. Roberts portrays Isaac Woodard Jr., an Army man who at the start of the play in the Bronx in 1951, is nursing booze and cradling his beloved guitar Doris. He is also blind, and it is indicated that this may not have always been true, and his wife Rosie (Chanel Carroll) tends to their baby boys while trying to keep him on track. A pair of detectives burst through his door wondering about a neighborhood crime that he may be linked to. After bringing him down to headquarters to be questioned, he explains his rocky history with the law, having been the victim of a hate crime in prison five years previously via a crooked policeman (Jonathan Miles). Isaac is a war hero, but treated as a savage in his native America, and social injustices gnaw at him even while crusaders begin to rally for his rights.

Carol Rosegg ©2025  Reginald L. Barnes as Henderson (pictured, left) and Christopher G. Roberts as Isaac Woodard, Jr. (pictured, right)

There is much, much more going on in the play, but there is simply no focus to any of it. Leading man Roberts writes with a very heavy hand (at two,-count 'em-two shovel-over-the-head moments, somebody mentions that a black man could possibly be president one day) and directs even more rigidly. Scene changes seem to take eons, and these heavy pauses make you realize that some of the more interesting aspects of Woodard's story are not dramatized at all. (How did he meet his loving wife“ What is Isaac truly like after he's been drinking?) Everyone in the play makes great strides to let us know what a unique individual Isaac is and it was no doubt true in actuality, but Roberts' performance only seems partially committed at best. He doesn't seem particularly interested in Woodard's dark side-which is alluded to many times-instead choosing a safer, saintly tone that makes the whole evening rather lugubrious.

The cast ranges from okay to downright embarrassing, but mention should be made of Reginald L. Barnes's soulful depiction of Isaac's best pal Henderson (who-in another bout of too much exposition- also plays our ghostly narrator); whenever he appears in the play, the tone seems more relaxed and his performance is quietly affecting. After watching him throughout, you start to wonder what he might have done with the leading role (and he actually more closely resembles Woodard in appearance). One thing remains, however. This is a life story that should have had a whole lot more life in it.