L to R: Luke Forbes, Ron Canada, Adam Gerber (photo credit: Charles Erickson)
It's April 1865, Confederate States Army General Robert E.
Lee has surrendered at Appomattox. The Civil War has ended and in a few days President
Abraham Lincoln will be assassinated. All that is background for Matthew
Lopez's gripping and highly emotional play "The Whipping Man" which
is set in the South. But it is the observance and the meaning of Passover that not
only affects but also reflects the way the play's three characters - three
Jewish men, two of whom are African-Americans, former slaves raised as Jews
will come to terms with it. They will concede to observe the holiday with as
much reverence as the difficult, also defiant, conditions will permit.
Badly wounded, Confederate soldier Caleb (Adam Gerber) has
returned to his wealthy family's burned, nearly destroyed home in Richmond, Virginia.
With his family having gone for a safe haven among relations in another state, twenty-something
Caleb is stunned by the presence of two of the family's household slaves - the fifty
year-old loyal and philosophical Simon (Ron Canada) and the rebellious and
antagonistic John (Luke Forbes) who is much closer to Caleb's age, have stayed
on foraging for survival while also awaiting money promised them by their
master.
While Simon has motivated John to take part in the Seder services
that he will oversee even though a kosher or traditional dinner is not even
remotely possible, Caleb's faith has been sorely tested by the horrors he has
seen. But his biggest test could be his being able to grasp the reality of a
new nation that promises freedom for all. It is a drastic change for Caleb who
finds it difficult relating as he had to the still devoted Simon and the more
contentious John, who as former house-slaves now find themselves unsure of
their future. Apparently, it was not unheard of for the wealthy Jews of the
South to instruct their household slaves in the Jewish practices and traditions.
While John is in hiding for reasons I won't disclose, Simon
has spent his time helping with the wounded at the local hospital. As soon as sees
Caleb's gangrene-infected foot, he knows it has to be amputated immediately. And
this is done by Simon with John
assisting in one of the play's most harrowing scenes.
Not conflicted in the least by their being raised as observant
Jews, including knowledge of the Torah and the scriptures, Simon and John are mainly,
however, slowly coming to terms with some painful familial and personal issues.
With plenty of time on their hands and keeping themselves in hiding, except for
the John's unremorseful forays to loot the abandoned homes of neighbors, the
men
begin to feed their repressed feeling as all sorts of family
secrets and past indiscretions come to the fore.
A new perspective is awakened in Caleb as he considers his
future. For the time being he is dependent upon the good-will of Simon and John
at the same time that his past history and his relationship with them becomes increasingly
incriminating.
The playwright craftily builds the tension as the unsettling
talks become increasingly incendiary. There are revelations startling enough to
potentially sever their relationship. John's vivid recollections of life under
the old master-slave conditions, and of living his youth, as the title of the
play disturbingly infers. Forbes is terrific and at times terrifying as the tough-skinned
but very intelligent, literate, self educated John. It is more than the impressive resonance of
Canada's voice that makes his commanding performance as Simon memorable. Gerber
brings to the surface all of Caleb's physical pain and emotional anguish.
Lopez's interesting and intriguing plot device to consider the
presence of well-to-do, property and slave-owning Jews as an historical reality
in antebellum Richmond adds a rich subtext to this unorthodox (no pun-intended)
drama. It has been expertly and sensitively directed by Seret Scott, who previously
directed a fine revival of "A Raisin in the Sun" for the George
Street Playhouse. The dramatics, mostly confined to talk, and perhaps just a
little too much exposition, are, however, punctuated with some fist-clenching and
mind-bending moments, all leading significantly to the climactic Seder.
It is also fascinating for us to contemplate the
implications within a play about Jews at Passover, an event that celebrates the
time of their freedom from slavery in the land of Egypt. That Jews would find
themselves slave-holders centuries later adds a sadly ironic note to the drama.
Flecked with humorous moments and just as many fired by lingering and unresolved
rage, "The Whipping Man" casts an almost haunting spell, a quality that is apparent in Jason
Simms' crumbling setting and Burke Brown's moody lighting.
This is first production of "The Whipping Man" that
I have seen since the play opened in New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club in
2011 following a number of regional theater productions that included its
premiere at Luna Stage in Montclair, NJ. After earning widespread critical approval, "The
Whipping Man" "won the coveted John Gassner Award from the Outer Critics
Circle that is awarded for an Outstanding Play Written by a Young American Playwright.
It continues to be produced with great success across the country and elsewhere.
However, I can't imagine a finer one than the one now at the George Street
Playhouse.
"The Whipping Man" (through February 15th)
George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick
For tickets (from $25.00) call (732) 246 - 7717
