[NEohioPAL] CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS: Epic play makes solid landing on Karamu stage

[performingarts at karamu.com]

Epic play makes solid landing on Karamu stage
Published: Friday, February 26, 2010
Reviewed by FRAN HELLER
Contributing Writer

Make no mistake. The singular most important issue that defines American
society is the subject of race.

It permeates our culture, our politics, our literature and our theater.
Which is why Jewish playwright Howard Sackler’s landmark play “The Great
White Hope” is a very significant work in the theatrical canon.

Epic in size, Shakespearean in scope, this 1969 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony
Award-winning drama draws from a page of history that not only illuminates
the past, but serves as a reminder that racism is still very much with us.
The three-way co-production between Karamu House, Ensemble Theatre, and
Akron’s Weathervane Playhouse is at Karamu through March 14.

With 45 actors and 19 scene changes, this huge, three-hour play is a bear
to produce. Director Terrence Spivey, artistic director at Karamu, pulls
it off with measurable success. The play is too long (several scenes could
be shaved without marring its impact), and the acting, uneven in quality.
Still, the integrity and spirit of the piece come through loud and clear
under Spivey’s inspired direction.
The dedicated ensemble works so hard to bring “The Great White Hope” to
life 
 and they do, for the most part. There is plenty of over-emoting and
over-acting by several supporting players, along with some questionable
foreign accents. But none of it is ruinous because the underlying
narrative and riveting dramatic conflict compel the viewer to stay with
the play.

“The Great White Hope” is loosely based on the real-life career of Jack
Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion of the world in 1908. The
story centers on the fictional boxer Jack Jefferson, an arrogant, abrasive
African-American who becomes the world champ. Dismayed by the fact that a
black man has usurped the title, the racist boxing world looks for a white
fighter, or “the great white hope,” to unseat him. Adding insult to
injury, Jefferson’s fiancée Ellie Bachman is a white woman, which draws
the wrath of the law down upon them both with tragic consequences. Like
“Romeo and Juliet,” the world in which Jack and Ellie struggle to survive
will not let them live together.

Written during a period of social and political unrest, the play (set in
the early 20th century) serves as a reflection of the turbulent late
1960s, informed by the raging Vietnam War and the birth of the civil
rights and black nationalist movements.

Scenic designer Richard H. Morris Jr. wisely uses video projections and
authentic black-and-white photographs to illuminate the pre-World War I
time frame and many scene changes. They keep the play moving and help
transitions run smoothly.

Colston “Skip” Corris is excellent as Irish-American racist Cap’n Dan, who
finds the idea of a black man coming up the ranks repellent and goads the
reigning retired champion into defending his title as the white hope. His
vitriolic soliloquy, in which Cap’n Dan likens Jack’s victory to the San
Francisco earthquake and a dark shadow crossing over the land, is
chilling.

As Jack’s Jewish manager Goldie, Craig Stadden’s scrawny beard is an
insult and his pronunciation of the word tumult (with the accent on the
second syllable) grating to the ear. Oy! Rollin “Mac” Michael also
overdoes it as the smarmy newspaper man Smitty.

The production shifts into high gear with the entrance of Anthony Elfonzia
Nickerson-El as Jack Jefferson and the excellent Jewish actress Ursula
Cataan as his white girlfriend Eleanor. These fine actors bring such utter
naturalness to the relationship, making its tragic outcome even more
devastating. The striking Cataan illuminates the stage with her
incandescent portrait of the doomed Ellie.

The love scene between Jack and Ellie is exquisitely drawn by the twosome;
it’s also poetic and sad. Ellie imagines staying in the sun and getting
darker and darker, so the world will leave them alone. Morris’s lighting
warms the tryst like the hot summer sun that burns Ellie’s skin.

Brawny Nickerson-El projects the contradictory nature of Jack’s
personality. To the public, he is brash and belligerent, both coping
mechanisms for survival. With Ellie, he is kind, humorous and fun-loving,
until the world weighs in and crushes them both.

Jack’s enemies are not only white folk, but educated and religious blacks
who regard his profligate lifestyle as a disgrace to their community.

Like Shakespeare’s tragic heroes, Jack is brought down by his own weakness
and the racist society in which he lives. He is proud, but also
self-destructive: He flaunts his relationship with a white woman when the
world, both black and white, isn’t ready for it. Jack is convicted for
violating the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport women across
state lines for immoral purposes.

Forced into exile and unable to fight, an angry and frustrated Jack cries
out, in a mixture of defiance and tears, as if railing against God and the
injustices of the world, “This is who I is!” The moment was so powerful,
it brought a lump to my throat.

Circumstances reach their nadir when Jack, Ellie and Jack’s faithful
manager Tick (the reliable Peter Lawson Jones) are reduced to caricatures
in a vaudevillian parody of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It’s almost unbearable to
watch.

The crowd scenes are well staged by Spivey, making ample use of the
theater, including the aisles. A winning example is the grand opening of
Jack’s café in Chicago, where cavorting blacks (dressed to the nines in
Jasen Smith’s sensational costumes) are confronted by a picketing white
temperance group who want the place shut down.

The boxing matches, all of which take place offstage, are another
effective dramatic device, aided by Dan Jankura’s roar-of-the-crowd
sounds.

“The Great White Hope” is a theatrical risk for the ambitious Spivey, who
keeps pushing the boundaries at Karamu. This solid production proves the
risk worth taking.

Through Sunday, March 14, at Karamu. Tickets: $24-$27 at Karamu
(www.karamuhouse.org or 216-795-7070)