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DocuSign Envelope ID:A1391 C8C-C731-4683-B498-D5B7783F86E4 es the limits of freedom I Theater I Indy Week <br /> It's 1904 in Pittsburgh. More than half of the characters on stage vividly <br /> recall captivity, and they've also had time to realize that their supposed <br /> emancipation has been circumscribed by a series of political, cultural and <br /> economic realities. When it comes to freedom, former slave Solly Two Kings <br /> (Thomasi McDonald) notes, "I say I got it, but what is it? I'm still trying to <br /> find out." <br /> In this penultimate chapter (which premiered in 2003) of Wilson's 10-play <br /> "Century Cycle," the playwright raises the stakes even further when the <br /> greatest threat that central character Citizen Barlow Oade Arnold) faces <br /> endangers his spiritual freedom as well. <br /> Barlow hasn't come to the house of Aunt Ester Ouanda LaJoyce Holley), a <br /> powerful matriarch and religious figure mentioned in several of Wilson's <br /> plays, to hide from the law. Instead, he's come to get his soul cleansed after <br /> causing a man's death. <br /> That circumstance precipitates an extended, frequently pointed meditation <br /> on individual freedom and the different limits inevitably placed upon it by <br /> legal and economic systems, interpersonal responsibilities and community <br /> membership—true citizenship, in other words. Solly predicts as much when <br /> he tells Barlow, "It's hard to be a citizen. You gonna have to fight to get it. <br /> And time you get it you be surprised how heavy it is." <br /> Significantly, the law—in the person of belligerent neighborhood enforcer <br /> Caesar Wilks (Phillip Bernard Smith)—is one of the entities that must be <br /> fought in this equation. When Wilks says that everything and everyone is <br /> if the law," he's describing a new form of subjugation. <br /> DirectorJohn Harris ably navigates the script, from the deceptively humble <br /> situations of the characters to the civic and spiritual heights they ultimately <br /> ascend. There's true nobility when McDonald assays Solly Two Kings' <br /> account of tasting—and forsaking—true freedom before joining the <br /> Underground Railroad. Holley is on firm footing as she conveys the uncanny <br /> religious authority of Aunt Ester, and Sherida McMullan gives Black Mary a <br /> similarly preternatural knowledge when she challenges Barlow to rethink his <br /> relationships with women. <br /> Regional veteran john Murphy easily portrays peddler Rutherford Selig. But <br /> Gem marks the second time in recent months that Malcolm Green has been <br /> asked to play a character much older than he is on stage. Having hit many of <br /> the same notes here as he did in Bare Theatre's Let Them Be Heard, regional <br /> directors now need to explore this actor's range. <br /> A high point of Gem is the second-act reconciliation ritual Aunt Ester <br /> conducts for Barlow. Holley gives Wilson's poetic description wings as she <br /> narrates—and Barlow lives—the plight of a ship full of slaves who did not <br /> survive the Middle Passage. The afterlife those saints inhabit—the fabled City <br /> of Bones—is the ultimate destination of Barlow's spiritual pilgrimage. That <br /> redemptive, transcendental journey is one all local theatergoers should take. <br /> http://www.indyweek.comAndyweek/gem-of-the-ocean-probes-the-limits-of-freedom/Content?oid=4163438&mode=print 3/4 <br />