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Last Updated: May 30th, 2008 - 11:49:13 |
The revival of “A Lesson Before Dying,” Ernest J. Gaines’ acclaimed tale of racial injustice and redemption at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda. Md., is powerfully direct, compelling and moving. Recent real-world lapses of fairness, particularly those in a small Louisiana town, lend additional significance and timeliness to playwright Romulus Linney’s solid adaptation of Gaines’ novel, set in the late 1940s, in another small Louisiana town.
Poor, Black and crippled by a fourth-grade education, Jefferson (the brilliant Shane Taylor) unwittingly tags along with two men who wind up in a gunfight with a liquor store owner. Jefferson’s buddies and the store owner are killed but instead of fleeing, Jefferson stays at the crime scene and is tried for murder. His court-appointed lawyer, in a misguided attempt to elicit mercy from the all-White jury, argues that his client is nothing more than a hog, incapable of plotting such a crime. Jefferson is sentenced to death.
Outraged and determined, Jefferson’s godmother Emma Glen (Beverly A. Cosham) reaches out to schoolteacher Grant Wiggins (KenYatta Rogers) for help. “His own lawyer called him a hog and they’re gonna kill him like a hog,” Emma declares. “I want you to teach my boy how to die like a man.”
Rogers does of wonderful job of conveying his character’s reluctance and cynicism. Grant hates the fourth graders he teaches, he hates the South, and he’s trying to find a way out. He reveals all this in his body language—there’s stiffness in Roger’s carriage that exposes his own disdain for everyone around him.
Taylor’s first appearance on the stage as the inmate Jefferson is startling. He is curled up under a table, crumpled like a wad of paper that missed its trashcan target. He slowly rises to face Grant, who has been browbeaten into visiting his former student. Jefferson’s wrists and ankles are shackled in chains, his face is closed and his eyes are downcast, holding forth with the stance of a demoralized and outraged man who has been called a hog. Taylor’s subtlety allows some innocence to seep through Jefferson’s hard shell and through our hearts.
Grant attempts to chip away at Jefferson’s armor, trying to get him to see that he is man, not a hog. He works to get a conversation going with Jefferson, offering him Emma’s fried chicken and tea cakes but his efforts to encourage the prisoner are undermined by his own arrogance and self centeredness and he becomes easily frustrated. When Grant complains about not being able to connect with Jefferson, his girlfriend Vivian (Rachel Leslie) tells him to snap out of it. He owes Jefferson, she says, reminding Grant that his former student is facing execution for reasons he does not understand.
Director Timothy Douglas keeps the pace of the play tight and the undercurrents of doom draw you in to the story line and the lives of the characters, particularly Jefferson.
In a natural way, the prisoner Jefferson and the teacher Grant begin to connect with one another. The compassionate prison guard Paul Bonin (Jeremy J. Brown) brings some humanity to Jefferson’s jail experience, providing a welcome contrast to the redneck Sheriff Sam Guidry (the commanding Lawrence Redmond). Grant learns that Jefferson loves music and misses being able to hear his favorite tunes since he has been in jail. Grant buys him radio, and when he hands it to Jefferson the young man gazes at the small box with a look of awe, and cradles it the way a mother holds a newborn. Captivated, his face lights up when he turns the knob and hears his familiar sounds come from the small box.
Rogers’ superb performance in the challenging role of Grant provides the foundation for Taylor’s soaring turn as Jefferson. Both characters are transformed through their relationship, revealing qualities that were shrouded by the oppressive climate of the times. As they open up to each other, their roles shift and the student becomes the teacher.
Round House has some very generous sponsors; the theater is offering a block of $10 seats for every performance. “A Lesson Before Dying” should not be missed, not only for the fine acting but for the insightful morality tale full of truths and pain that resonate in each person’s heart.
“A Lesson Before Dying” runs through October 14 at Round House Theatre Bethesda, 4545 East-West Highway. Tickets are $10 - $60 and may be purchased by phone at 240-644-1100, online at www.roundhousetheatre.org, or at the Round House box office in Bethesda, Md.
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