A Forgotten Chapter in History

Flyin’ West – American Blues Theatre

 

The Homestead Act of the mid-1800’s offered thousands of African Americans a glimmer of hope, following the aftermath of the Civil War and the turmoil of Reconstruction. With the passage of two Constitutional amendments that granted former slaves citizenship and the right to vote, this should’ve been a time for rejoicing. But Southern white men were determined to keep African Americans their inferiors by instituting the Jim Crow Laws. So black Americans, particularly women, became part of The Great Exodus that found entire towns being founded by African Americans with a dream for a new, free life.

One such town was Nicodemus, Kansas, an all-black settlement built by former slaves and their descendants. The opportunities that lay in the flat fields and gently rolling hills of the Great Plains called to settlers, offering a Promised Land of Plenty. Fiction writer, poet, essayist, journalist and playwright Pearl Cleage wrote this, her first foray into drama, in 1992. Her second attempt, “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” is her best known and most-produced play. She’s also the author of nine novels, including What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, which became an Oprah Book Club selection. This early play sheds light on an important chapter in American History that’s seldom taught in schools. Ms. Cleage populates this play, like all her dramas, with strong, intelligent characters, women of color who are fast-talkers and quick-thinkers.

Set in Nicodemus in the Autumn of 1898, Ms. Cleage’s drama, which offers generous helpings of comic moments, centers around four women settling into their new life in rural Kansas. Sophie is the eldest of three African American sisters. From the moment she strides into the rustic cabin that she shares with her younger sister, carrying a shotgun and some supplies, we know this tough-talking woman is completely in charge. She enjoys verbally sparring with Miss Leah, the girls’ opinionated octogenarian neighbor, who’s staying at their house. Sophie enjoys teasing her younger sister, Fannie, about her obvious flirtation with Wil Parish, a kindly neighbor willing to support and help the women with anything they need.

The ladies excitedly prepare for a week-long visit from their youngest sister, Minnie. She’s been away from home for some time, living the sophisticated life with Frank, her poet husband, in London. Upon their arrival, however, it becomes all too clear that Frank not only considers Nicodemus uncivilized and barbaric, but looks down his nose at his wife’s sisters and friends as inferiors. While tension grows, particularly between Sophie and Frank, the women witness Frank physically and emotionally abusing Minnie, who’s pregnant with their first child. It’s in this moment that Cleage changes course. She abandons her fine exploration of a little-known topic: post-Civil War African Americans seeking to create a safe place to live, where their rights and freedoms will flourish. Instead, she turns her play into a domestic, melodramatic potboiler, whose conclusion is predictable. In leaving her original story and its themes behind she loses the power to destroy stereotypes and put faces to an important moment in history.  

Chuck Smith’s production is well-cast, intelligently directed and nicely staged in and around Grant Sabin’s authentic-looking, rustic, frontier cottage. Bathed in Jacob Gooding’s lighting and Rick Sims’ sound design, the actors look great in the frontier costumes designed by Lily Grace Walls.

With her credo, “Some things need to be said out loud to keep life in them; not everything can be wrote down,” Joslyn Jones turns in the most memorable performance in this production. So terrific in TATC’s production of “Steel Magnolias,” Ms. Jones is a standout here again. She portrays Miss Leah, a crotchety but warmhearted and strong-willed woman, who endured unthinkable pain and misery as a slave. This pioneer woman remembers losing her husband, James, and burying five of her children; the others were ripped from her loving arms and sold to other plantation owners. She’s the portrait of durability and determination. Filled with depths of tenderness, wisdom and tenacity, Ms. Jones is the star and spirit of this play.

The three sisters are winningly played by Tiffany Oglesby, as the no-nonsense eldest sister, Sophie; a terrific Sydney Charles (Dorothy in Kokandy Productions’ “The Wiz”), as the sweet, kindhearted Fannie; and petite Tiffany Renee Johnson, playing Minnie, the youngest sister, who, despite being bullied and battered by her husband, stands by her man. Wardell Julius Clark, who’s many talents have been enjoyed on stages all over Chicagoland, from Raven to the Windy City Playhouse, is perfectly obnoxious and intimidating as Frank. Henri Watkins, on the other hand, is a model gentleman, playing the women’s more than accommodating neighbor (and Fannie’s love interest), Wil Parish.

Pearl Cleage’s first play is given a finely polished presentation in Chuck Smith’s production for this theater company. While the play suddenly turns into a melodramatic soap opera in Act II, with an ending that will please some and shock others, with its too neat conclusion, the exposure to an important chapter of history makes it worthwhile. Smith’s production, told by an earnest, talented cast, gives voice to a gifted writer with a killer instinct for righting injustice.

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas   

 

Presented October 5-November 3 by American Blues Theater at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago.

Tickets are available in person at the box office, by calling 773-654-3103 or by going to www.AmericanBluesTheater.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.