'Native Son'

‘Native Son’ is about the humanization of Black people. yet, as I sat in the audience of a talkback following PlayMakers’s production of the piece, I realized that many of the audience members and actors seemed to have missed the point.

the play was written by Nambi E. Kelley, and is an adaptation of Richard Wright’s 1939 novel of the same name. ‘Native Son’ was originally adapted for the stage by Paul Green, whose drastic and unnecessary changes to the text altered the entire meaning and intent of the piece for audiences in 1942. Kelley’s version, however, maintains Wright’s intent, and does so in a way that is both powerful and beautiful.

this review is about digestion.

as usual, the audience of PlayMakers was predominately white and elderly, but today, there were small pockets of undergraduate students. these students were easily identifiable by their lazy, ‘just woke up’ fashions, and incessant need to check their phones during the show. their attendance to this play was clearly out of necessity or requirement, rather than desire. I don’t think they understood the play’s urgency and relevancy, and I don’t think PlayMakers, nor the professors who required them to see it, care.

within the first ten minutes of the show we see a drunk white woman named Mary stumble on the stage and plead for the help and attention of a Black man, Bigger Thomas. Mary is played by Sarah Elizabeth Keyes, and Bigger Thomas is portrayed by Brandon Herman St. Clair Haynes. as Mary flirts and attempts to seduce Bigger in her drunken state, the audience giggles—but the play is set in the 1930s and interracial relations at this time are no laughing matter. this particular scene serves as the critical point of attack for the play, and is rather ominous because of the implications it has. this is the scene in which Mary dies, and though Bigger did not kill her, the optics of the situation automatically incriminate him. the play shows Bigger’s struggle with finding a solution to this problem, and in his attempt to save himself, he does nothing but make the situation worse. 

Kelley’s version of this play brilliantly shows Bigger’s desperation. she manages to emphasize his humanity and give validity to his behavior by her use of his personified conscience, The Black Rat, played by Brandon J. Pierce.

I felt empowered by this piece. moved. overwhelmed. untouchable. Haynes’s performance was one of the best I’ve ever seen at PlayMakers, and Kelley’s writing was impeccable.

but it was clear that those bringing this play to life and other audience members may not have seen things the way I did.

I wondered if Keyes and the costume designer, Bobbi Owen, understood the over-the-top, yet disposable nature of the character Mary. Mary says the word ‘bigger’ a lot in the play, both in a suggestive sexual manner and when calling Bigger by his name. as a playwright and a trained actor, I know that repetition in a script is something that should be handled with care because it is usually being used to articulate a point. I think the severity of Mary’s actions would have been more poignant if Keyes had approached the language of the play more thoughtfully. 

in the case of the costume designer, the attention given to Mary’s costumes versus those of Bessie and Vera say it all. there is a rather elaborate costume change at the beginning of the play in which Mary changes into a ‘jungle’ outfit, and honestly, I wished that effort was placed elsewhere. Davis, who in addition to Bessie also plays Bigger’s younger sister Vera, would have benefitted tremendously from an actual costume change instead of simply taking off her socks and switching her wig to communicate a difference in characters. I’m almost certain that this disparity was not intentional, however it continues to emphasize another large theme in the play: nobody cares about Black women.

and the audience members didn’t seem to either. I watched the white women sitting on the other side of the thrust stage cringe and cover their faces as Bigger used an axe to make Mary’s already dead body fit into a furnace. yet, when Bessie is raped, and has her head smashed in with a brick— a scene I found far more graphic than that of Mary’s mangling— these same women were stoic. no one seemed to care.

during the talkback, there were questions about the language of the play clearly directed toward the white actors and implying uncomfortability with using the ’n-word,’ yet none of them felt the need to speak or even acknowledge what was being asked. the cast was literally segregated on the stage and white women in the audience aggressively attempted to instruct Haynes on using a microphone, belittling him as he answered questions. it was as if they didn’t see the play at all. 

they seemed to have missed the moments in the play where seemingly good intentions manifested as negative experiences and resulted in pain. 

they seemed to have missed the humanity in Bigger Thomas, and how Bigger Thomas is a direct result of being Black in America.

they seemed to have missed that Bigger Thomas isn't just a character in a 1930’s novel, but someone who still exists today, simply trying to make a way where there isn’t one.

they seemed to have ingested the play like the kid who sat beside me—distracted, and on his phone.