KC REP PRESENTS POWERFUL DRAMA OF SLAVERY, FREEDOM, FAITH

In one of the first exchanges of Matthew Lopez’ The Whipping Man,former slave owner Caleb DeLeon begins shouting orders to former slave Simon – fetch this, fetch that. It is days after the end of the Civil War, and Simon winces, surprised that his former master has not yet grasped the new order of things: namely, that he can’t give orders any more. But Simon complies anyway, giving a glimpse of how complex the relationships between former master and slave must have been in the early days of the post-war South. Caleb is wounded, and he needs help with a gangrenous leg or he will die; Simon helps him, he says, not because he has to but “because it’s the right thing to do.”

The Whipping Man, which runs at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre through April 8^th, takes an unconventional look at a Virginia home reeling from the wounds of slavery: Caleb’s family is Jewish, and they have raised their slaves in the Jewish faith, with its historical themes of freedom and deliverance from slavery. Lopez makes ample use of the counterpoint between ancient Mosaic history and Confederate history: Each of the protagonists – one master, two former slaves – suffers from some sort of bondage, and during the course of the play they find neither redemption nor catharsis. Lopez knows that, after generations of slavery, freedom and forgiveness are not so easily won.

Enter John (Josh Breckenridge), a slick young man with fine tailored suits (stolen) and a tendency toward larceny. Former boyhood friends with “master” Caleb, John changed his view of his white buddy early on when Caleb joined in one of John’s frequent boyhood whippings. John is critical of Simon’s continued obsequiousness toward the son of their former master, but he sticks around to help out for reasons that are only gradually revealed. He is not the only one hiding from a grisly truth: Caleb (Kyle Hatley) also has his secrets, and much of the energy of the play derives from a series of explosive (if perhaps not-too-surprising) revelations that impact all three characters. Simon (the ever-commanding Michael Genet) tries his best to hold together this unconventional little “family,” but he too learns truths that drive him to abandon the bizarre situation and set out to tackle his own demons.

Genet’s broad and all-encompassing performance holds the three-man production together, led by Eric Rosen’s sure direction, which though a tad slow-moving has the evening on slow boil throughout. Hatley’s Caleb shouts a lot and is a bit hard around the edges, perhaps by design: It must be tough to portray a multidimensional character while confined to a sofa. Breckenridge’s John is an odd mixture of bitterness and warmth; despite his bravado, one feels conflicting emotions about cutting ties with the Deleon family to find his fortune in the North. If Lopez’ language is a bit flat, even mundane at times (not to mention anachronistic), the performances elevate it in a way that gets under your skin.

The entire action of the play takes place at night – often quite stormy night – in the living room of Caleb’s formerly lavish family home – lit by candlelight throughout as if to increase the sense of a dark journey of the soul. Jack Magaw’s striking set design shows a home that has suffered the ravages of war and pillage, and Victor En Yu Tan’s lighting is appropriately dim, growing brighter only during the climactic Seder scene. And what an odd moment scene it is, when the three realize it is the beginning of Passover, 1865, and create a makeshift dinner with hardtack, un-kosher horse meat and stolen wine. The dinner is never completed, as bitter truths boil to the surface and threaten to undermine the assuaging comfort of religion. The open-ended conclusion keeps you pondering, long after the curtain falls, what might happen next. Does Simon find his family? Do Caleb and John reconcile? Such questions are not just at the heart of this drama but continue to haunt us even today, as we struggle with the legacy of slavery and its outward expression in racial tensions that we have yet to overcome.

The Whipping Man runs through April 8^th at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s Spencer Theatre, 4949 Cherry on the UMKC campus. For tickets call 816-235-2700 or go to kcrep.org.

To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send email to phorsley@sbcglobal.net.