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DocuSign Envelope ID:Al 391C8C-C731-4683-B498-D5B7783F86E4 ArtsCenter TheWhi in Man Theater Ind Week <br /> ,,-1 ..,. ..., ,, Stage's pP 9 � � Y <br /> ArtsCenter Stage has always been the little theater that could, and this <br /> production proves once again that a tiny stage, nonexistent back-of-house <br /> and minimal staff cannot weaken the transformative power of drama. The <br /> Whipping Man is two hours long, and for many of those 120 minutes, you <br /> will be on the edge of your seat. The script's intricate folds open slowly; but <br /> during the second act, the intermittent popping of secrets becomes a <br /> fusillade leading to cannon-fire of explosive knowledge, which exposes both <br /> characters and audience in the fiery wreckage. <br /> The story takes place over three days in April 1865, less than a week after <br /> Lee's surrender at Appomattox. As the play begins, we see Caleb DeLeon <br /> (Victor Rivera, moving effectively from callow and commanding to chastened <br /> awareness), dragging himself, grievously wounded, into the remains of his <br /> father's once-grand Richmond house (all the production design work is very <br /> strong). Caleb is anew and a Confederate soldier, and his parents have fled <br /> the city, which is now under Federal control. But two former slaves have <br /> remained in the house for their own reasons: Having been part of the <br /> household all their lives, they too are Jews. John is a young man, about <br /> Caleb's age; Simon is of a solid middle age, and the man without whom the <br /> household cannot run. <br /> It is a season of mud and blood, of despair and rejoicing. And it is Passover. <br /> Incisively directed by Mark Filiaci, with a restraint that makes late revelations <br /> all the more forceful, the three actors obliterate this time in a modern town <br /> and replace it with desperate days in ruined Richmond. This is not a play <br /> where you are forced to always keep in mind that it is a play. It is not art <br /> about art. The actors do not speak directly to the audience. They speak to us <br /> through the power of the dramatic story, and with their fearless acting. <br /> Led by Phillip B. Smith as Simon, they make us know some essential things <br /> about that past and the way it has shaped our present. Without spelling <br /> them out, playwright Lopez has Simon engage us with a range of moral <br /> quandaries—what is good, what is right, what is necessary, what can be <br /> forgiven, what cannot be allowed to pass without counteraction? Simon <br /> holds the most knowledge of the three men, though he doesn't know <br /> everything he thinks he knows. He chivvies the feckless John (Alphonse <br /> Nicholson, again leaping ahead of himself in nuanced understanding), who's <br /> frittering his freedom liberating whisky, fancy clothes and piles of books; he <br /> saves Caleb's life; he feeds all three of them. And he insists on holding a <br /> Seder at Caleb's bedside, even though Caleb lost his faith in the trenches of <br /> Petersburg. <br /> That Seder scene, with its celebrations and revelations, is one of the most <br /> powerful scenes I've ever witnessed on stage. Do not miss it. <br /> This article appeared in print with the headline "A night different from other <br /> nights." <br /> http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/a-powerful-post-civil-war-encounter-in-artscenter-stages-the-whipping-man/Content?oid=3749259&mode=print 213 <br />