The opening monologue inLuther Goins' Love Child talks about disrespect, about the TV not working, about no AC, about a good day being one where the police don't knock on your door for any reason.

        Then the playwright opens the door on a neighborhood where a pair of octogenarian vigilantes (Burgess Byrd and Leslie Leannan embracing their comic stereotypes) provide hilarious comment on the black experience and four girls — TaWanda, DaWanda, LaWanda and ShaWanda — do some growing up in a parenting class.

        A mix of outrageous comedy and the modern urban tragedies of cycles of abuse and babies having babies, Love Child is both very funny and very serious.

        On opening night at Ensemble Theatre, where Love Child is having a too-short two-week run under the theater's alternative Off-Center/On-Stage banner, it was a joy to see an audience that mixed black and white. The most knowing laughter was coming from people who weren't middle-aged, middle-class whites.

        I haven't walked a mile in these shoes, but for any of us lucky enough to be on the outside of some astute jokes (one of the girls names her son "dot.com' because it's all white folks talk about) there's the production's energy and passion to revel in.

        Monica Williams delivers an urgent, sharply considered production, smoothing over the occasional rough pacing in the script. This production is raw (in its language) and in its bones, just a few chairs on the grungy set from Fully Committed, which suits the action nicely.

        At the heart of Love Child are desperately unhappy TaWanda (wounded into street smart antagonism and beautifully rendered by Jessica Hickland) and her mother, a bottomless well of rage. It's a gorgeous performance by Deborah Brock-Blanks, never more than when she's clawing her way out of the abyss.

        There's terrific work from three School for Creative and Performing Arts High School seniors Raven A. Curry, Crystal Johnson and particularly the sassy, sashaying ShaWanda of TyAnna Rolley.

        The four Wandas are a major fashion statement by costume designer Belinda Poston. There's wonderful attention to detail in Love Child, right down to Miss Pearl's wrinkled support hose and Miss Fanny's rolled ankle socks. Love Child is a steal at $10.

        I've always wondered how ETC could disregard its location on the edge of an African-American neighborhood and remain so relentlessly white. I hope Love Child is just the beginning of a future for ETC of regularly addressing its community's issues onstage.

        Love Child, through Oct. 14, Ensemble Theatre, 1127 Vine St., 421-3555.

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