REVIEWS ...
Monday, April 8, 2002
'A Lesson Before Dying' is gripping
By Marta Barber
mbarber@herald.com
It is 1948 and injustice has been served in a segregated courtroom in Bayonne, La.
Jefferson, a young, poor, black man who never made it past the fourth grade, has been convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair for the murder of a white man. During the trial his own lawyer, the public defender, called him a hog -- and so now he's behaving like one in jail.
Hearing this, Miss Emma, a woman up in years who worked in the home of the most powerful folks in town and who took care of Jefferson as he was growing up, decides to use her influence to turn things around.
The law can't be changed, but she'll make sure Jefferson dies with the dignity that comes with being innocent -- and in doing so, she'll show the people of Bayonne the mettle of her people.
A Lesson Before Dying, a powerful play by Romulus Linney based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines and now at Coral Gables' GableStage, offers a moving testament to the early civil rights movement. But it's also an intense drama that keeps you engaged from beginning to end.
And this production does merit to the play with fine direction by Joe Adler and a first-rate cast that includes two outstanding performances.
Miss Emma (Dorothy J. Morrison) is the Rosa Parks of Bayonne, yet she's unable to teach Jefferson what he needs to know. So she engages the town's teacher, Grant Wiggins, who may hate the South and teaching, but who owes Miss Emma his education.
John Archie plays Wiggins, and his commanding presence and tour de force performance -- reminiscent of the work of a young Morgan Freeman -- shouldn't be missed. Also worth noting is Sheaun McKinney, who softly but with assurance transforms Jefferson from a defiant prisoner to a dignified young man about to die.
The action takes place mostly in a jailhouse storeroom, where a shackled Jefferson is delivered every day to hear Wiggins' lessons. He's always accompanied by Paul (Michael D. Vines), a somewhat intimated deputy with a soft spot for the inmate and those who come to see him. He stands in sharp contrast to Sam Guidry (Heath Kelts), the bigoted sheriff who reluctantly concedes to the visits.
The action shifts from the storeroom to the classroom where Wiggins teaches and the bar where Wiggins meets his girlfriend, Vivian (Summer Wronge.) Set designer Lyle Baskin strikes a clear balance among the three locales.
Adding a religious dimension to the play, Miss Emma also brings the Rev. Moses Ambrose (Clarence Thomas) on her jail visits. The teacher and the preacher clash in the eternal confrontation of God vs. man. And to show that discrimination is not limited to black vs. white, Jefferson calls the light-skinned Vivian a "yellow bitch" and is not afraid of insulting her to Wiggins' face.
A Lesson Before Dying contains strong language, including the "N" word. Yet there is an elegance in the dialogue and a cadence that is almost musical, especially when spoken by Archie. Director Adler has muted any deep Southern accent, a wise decision that keeps the actors concentrated on the powerful message.
A Lesson Before Dying will be shown daily to Miami-Dade schools as part of an education program. This should help iron out some of the small kinks in the production and further meld the show's good drama with the cast's great acting.
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
Death-row drama is Lesson in self-respect
By Jack Zink, Theater Critic
Jefferson is going to fry in the electric chair, and he's innocent. But that isn't the issue in Romulus Linney's A Lesson Before Dying at the GableStage. The young man has some growing up to do first, and director Joseph Adler sees to it that he does.
Linney's stage drama, adapted from a novel by Ernest J. Gaines, is about self-respect and self-discovery, set against a tragedy in Louisiana bayou country in the late 1940s. Separatism and racism, still being fought over today, were legal institutions then. They, along with murder itself, are the backdrops for rites of passage by both the convict and the man assigned to console him.
GableStage artistic director Adler chose the play as his educational program for Miami-Dade school students this month. It's also the fourth of the theater's six main stage attractions this season, appearing weekends for the public in addition to the weekday school matinees. It's tailored for both presentations, with fine performances illustrating a meaningful tale.
John Archie is Grant Wiggins, a bayou native who has come back from college to teach fourth graders in a rundown rural schoolhouse. Jefferson (Sheaun McKinney) is one of his former students, now sentenced to death for his part in a robbery that took three lives. Teacher and student will face one another in the weeks leading up to the electrocution, each imparting a lesson to the other.
McKinney is a Miami-Dade Community College student making his professional debut. Adler, who has a knack for casting newcomers in ideal roles, gives McKinney an impressive showcase, while Archie is one of the region's finest natural talents.
Wiggins, who is frustrated at being locked in a segregated backwater, is forced to face his own shortcomings during confrontations with the falsely convicted youth. He also learns a few things from his fiancee (Summer Wronge), a teacher in a comparatively upscale plantation school.
Pushing other loyalties are Dorothy J. Morrison as the convict's aunt, and Clarence Thomas as a minister who makes a clear distinction between the importance of the condemned young man's soul and his manhood.
Southern white society is represented by Heath Kelts as a bigoted sheriff and Michael D. Vines as a deputy. The sheriff is a stereotype that Kelts' portrayal does nothing to improve; Vines gives a touching performance as the sympathetic deputy who witnesses the convict's transformation from scapegoat to a role model for the entire community, both black and white.
The GableStage production, the play's regional premiere, comes with a first-rate creative design. Lyle Baskin's set is dominated at center by the county jail's storeroom, with an alcove that figures in the climax. It's flanked by a schoolroom and a soda shop, and overhung by trees sprinkled with moss to suggest the lowlands outside. Jeff Quinn's lighting is soft without dimness; costumes are by Daniela Schwimmer, and sound design by Michael J. Hoffman includes evocative incidental music.
Linney was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival to adapt Gaines' novel for that theater's 2000 season. A Lesson Before Dying next showed up at the Signature Theatre off-Broadway. Its arrival here brings a refreshing example of classic theatrical storytelling, as well as meaningful drama, to the South Florida season.
Jack Zink can be reached at jzink@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4706.
