One of the four Baltimore based theatre companies that I patronize, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has the most unique of venues. Ten years ago, the CSC acquired its present home, the 1885 Mercantile Trust and Deposit Bank on the corner of Calvert Street, and East Baltimore Avenue. The exterior is in the Romanesque style, and it sports these grand columns that rise up from the ground floor three stories to the ornately plastered ceiling. In 1993, after years of deferred maintenance, the bank closed the building. Seven years later a private investor sunk 2.5 million into the place to restore and convert it into a night club. between 2002 and 2012 a series of failed iterations of the theme sprung up and withered away. In 2014, CSC took advantage of the open interior and created a Globe-like theatre anchored by the rows of columns. It's a very intimate space with three tiers of seating. There are just four rows on the ground floor, and then two on the second floor, followed by a single row of seats on the third. I'm a full-range theatre nerd!
The play is chronologically, the second of the ten written by August Wilson for his Century Cycle. Wilson did not write the plays in chronological order, "Joe Turner" was the fourth to be completed in the frenetic 1980's when he created the first five. The story centers around a group of African Americans and home with a couple who lets out rooms to help make ends meet. Like all by one of the plays, it is set in Pittsburgh, PA. When we first meet the home owners, Seth and Bertha Holly, they have just two boarders. Bynum Walker, an elderly man with conjure-powers to bind people, and Jeremy Furlow, a young day laborer fresh up from North Carolina with zero city sense and a guitar. Before long, others arrive, an abandoned wife whom Jeremy takes up with, a single woman with questionable morals, and a mysterious father/daughter duo five years into searching for there wife and mother. It is a hallmark of Wilson to create a group of very interesting folks that allows for multiple windows into the mores, politics, economics and transforming culture of each decade.
Again a rock solid cast. Jefferson A. Russell is something of a fixture in the DMV theatre community and a member of the repertory troupe belonging to Everyman Theatre. As always, he delivers a powerful, steady performance, that like his character, is the anchor for the whole. Gregory Burgess, as Bynum, to old conjurer-man was magical--within his soliloquies, the words of Wilson rise with a lyric beauty completely akin to Shakespeare. These are not the psychologically intense dramas of Edward Albee or the seething melodramas of Tennessee Williams or Lillian Hellman. Wilson writes of pedestrian sins that he elevates with the respect with which he imbues to his characters. And he's not afraid of drawing blood, either. Nowhere is this care and capacity more richly embodied than in the stunning performance of Josh Wilder as Harold Loomis, the man in search of his wife. The first act ends with a frenzied scene of a house full of laughter and merriment, suddenly shattered when Loomis succumbs to his demons recounting an horrific dream of the middle passage unable to free himself of the trance with Bynum's magic. When the lights went out and the theatre was momentarily pitch black, I realized that I had been holding my breath. Now, that's good theatre!
In fact, looking back on the month of September and the first five productions, this one is my favorite. The rest of the cast was likewise strong, right town to the children, for whom Wilson wrote a scene that depicted a first kiss--not a kiss. It was so delightfully acted, so perfectly executed choreographically that the young actors Mikayla Uqdah and Harold S. Henry III, each won a special place in the hearts of the audience. The set was gorgeous (Timothy Jones) and the costumes beautiful (Wil E. Crowther). Special recognition to the lighting (Katie McCreary) and sound (Adam Mendelson) designers whose creations made the magic real. I've now seen 7 of the 10 plays and I do believe this one enters the standing of my top three favorites joining "Jitney" and "Gem of the Ocean."
What an excellent conclusion to my first month of theater going this season!
The Holly's: Bertha (Aakhu Tuahnera Freeman) and Seth (Jefferson A. Russell)
With both Bertha and Ruthefrod Selig (Joe Crea) an itinerant salesman of pots and kitchen utensils listen on, Bynum Walker (Gregory Burgess) tells the story of meeting the "shiny" man and learning about his conjurer's gifts
Bynum tries to give Jeremy Furlow (Miles Folley) some sagely advice about life in the city
Jeremy convinces the young, Mattie Campbell (Zipporah Brown Gladden) to cast her fate with his
Mattie moves into the Holly's home
Harold Loomis (Josh Wilder) climbs atop the dinner table as his inner demons are about to unleash themselves on the residents of the Holly's home.
At one point, Harold Loomis fancies Mattie Campbell wanting a mother figure for his daughter, Zonia
The stranger, Molly Cunningham (Mecca Verdell) arrives to rent a room and up-ends Jeremy's resolve for Mattie
Reuben Mercer (Harold S. Henry III) and Zonia Loomis (Mikayla Uqdah)
A great view of the magnificent set, Bynum and Seth play dominoes while Harold eats his last supper in the Holly home, having been asked to leave after his fever-dream revelation. While Old Bynum is the nexus of deep wisdom magical thinking, Seth is a modern man, not given to faith in superstitions or religions.
Sometimes, you've just gotta laugh... Bertha, Seth, Bynum and Mattie
