Tiffany Renee Johnson and Awa Sal Secka with Aisha Sougou, Melanie Brezill, Mia Ellis, and Bisserat Tseggai Photo by Ben Krantz Studio/Berkeley Rep

Though Black men sometimes get braids, Jaja's place is filled with women: the stylists and their clients. The heart of the salon is Marie (a charming Jordan Rice), Jaja's daughter who runs things when mom's away–as she is on the day the action of the play takes place. For Jaja, an undocumented immigrant from Senegal, is scheduled to marry Steve, a white New Yorker who will be the end of all her problems. Or so she hopes. Meanwhile, Marie will skip the wedding, partly because someone has to run the salon, and partly because she's not so sure Steve is right for her mother.

Once the rolling steel door (part of an imaginative set design by David Zinn) is raised, the stylists and their clients make their appearance: Miriam (Bisserat Tseggai) is a sweet, gentle soul, but gets saddled with a walk-in who wants micro-braids, a process that will take all day and leave Miriam with blistered fingers. Ndidi (Aisha Sougou) is renting a chair from Jaja while her own salon is being remodeled. Bea (Awa Sal Secka) has the sauce that spices up life at Jaja's, with her bossy, queen bee attitude, and anger at Ndidi serving a client that used to be hers. Aminata (Tiffany Renee Johnson) is Bea's closest friend in the shop, but she's busy worrying about her ne'er-do-well husband (played with unctuous charisma by Kevin Aoussou) who seems to use Aminata as an ATM. (Bea also doesn't much care for Steve, saying "Jaja puts too much faith in white people.")

Bioh has done a marvelous job giving the stylists well-rounded, fully fleshed out personalities, though the customers are a little more one-dimensional and played mostly for laughs and pathos. Jennifer (Mia Ellis) sits patiently during the 12-hour micro-braiding process (magically transformed over the course of this 90-minute play), but another customer (Leovina Charles) is so difficult and impossible to please that she gets pawned off on sweet Aminata, who's clearly a bit of a pushover. Director Whitney White has done fine work helping us understand–and empathize with–all these women.

Through their interactions, there's plenty of humor, but underlying it all is a sense of uncertainty for each of them, especially in regard to their immigration issues. Will Marie, who, like her mother, lacks a green card or citizenship, be accepted to college (even though she was her high school's valedictorian), and if she is, will she tell her mother she wants to be a writer and not her mom's dream of a doctor? Will Miriam ever be reunited with the daughter she left back in Sierra Leone with her grandmother? And then there is the rather unexpected (but ultimately unsurprising) twist in the play's denouement that gives this comedy a rather tragic, unsettled ending.

Though the actors give tremendous, heartfelt (and humorous) performances, I wish Bioh had more clearly established what is at stake for each character a little earlier in the proceedings. As it is, the first third of the play feels a bit like watching an episode of a sitcom from the middle of the third season without having seen any of the previous installments.

With its score of Afro-pop music and Nollywood movies playing on the shop's TV screens, the amazing tonsorial creations (especially Ndidi's client's braids), and the joy the women take in their cultures and their work, Jaja's African Hair Braiding can be wildly entertaining, if somewhat unfocused.

Jaja's African Hair Braiding runs through December 15, 2024, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Peet's Theatre, 2025 Addison Street, Berkeley CA. Shows are Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m., Wednesdays at 7:00pm, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., with matinees Saturdays and Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $83-$151, with discounts available for those under 35. (There are also a limited number of $25 tickets released each Tuesday). For tickets and information, please visit www.berkeleyrep.org or call the box office at 510-647-2949.