| IF YOU GO |
| “every tongue confess” |
| Where: Kogod Cradle, Mead Center for American Theatre, 1101 Sixth St. SW |
| When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday and Sunday; 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; weekday matinees Nov. 26, Dec. 1, 7-8, 23-24 |
| Info: Tickets start at $40, discounts available; 202-488-3300; arenastage.org |
Marcus Gardley’s “every tongue confess” at Arena Stage’s Kogod Cradle theater is a moving vision of relationships, religion and racial strife in the modern American South. It plays with memory, imagination and the supernatural to conjure up a place in which the living and the dead coexist, where dreams, fantasies and Biblical allegory are the stuff of every-day reality.
On its earthly plane, “every tongue confess” takes place in Kentucky and in Boligee, Ala., in August 1996. Black churches are burning to the ground at a great rate; there are far too many fires for them to be coincidental, and in what seem to be satanic acts of violence, the churches are torched with worshippers inside.
To capture the horror of that era, Gardley takes the play’s action to a more abstract level, using intense poetry, a facility with nature references — there are frequent ones to fire, frost, water, ice and hail — and all the power and glory of blues and gospel music to tell his story.
That story begins on an outrageously hot day in a Baptist church, where a trio of parishioners, Elder (Eugene Lee), Brother (E. Roger Mitchell) and Missionary (Crystal Fox) are wilting in the heat. At the end of their introduction, Elder begins to describe a situation that sets the tragedy of the play in motion.
A teenage girl, Benny Pride (Autumn Hurlbert), unwittingly positions her mother, Bernadette (Leslie Kritzer), to take the blame for the destruction of some cocaine. That loss causes Bernadette’s low-life boyfriend, Bobby (E. Roger Mitchell), to shoot her. Although she remains in a coma, Bernadette makes regular visits to her mean-spirited ex-husband, Stoker Pride (Jim Ireland), who is now the only living relative available to take custody of Benny.
There is a second family whose story is given to peace rather than violence. A pastor, Mother Sister (the extraordinary Phylicia Rashad), and her son, Shadrack (Jason Dirden), present an upbeat and humorous alternative to Stoker Pride and Bobby. Shadrack is an optimistic 16-year-old ready to leave home to make his own way in the world. As played by Rashad, Shadrack’s mother is both down-to-earth and profoundly spiritual. When a stranger, Blacksmith (Jonathan Peck), enters their lives, both mother and son are deeply affected.
Although the continually changing focus of Act I creates a frenetic surface feel, making it difficult to sink deeply into Gardley’s sequential tales, and although his characters are not all drawn with the same sure hand, it’s clear the playwright is trying to tell his story in a new, nonlinear way.
Director Kenny Leon skillfully keeps the play moving smoothly, its Biblical and nature references richly illuminating the text. In the second act there are two musical numbers that stand out. The first is a spiritual sung to Mother Sister by the extremely talented Hurlbert. The second is a heart-stopping number delivered with power and depth of feeling by Rashad.
Set designer Tom Lynch has removed two panels from the dark, basket-weave rear wall of the stage and hung fabric in them. Allen Lee Hughes’ lighting design flickers red light on the fabric to suggest fire. The rest of Lynch’s set is simple: a free-standing candelabra, a few church pews, a table and chairs for Mother Sister’s home and an abstract sculpture — suggesting a gnarled tree — hanging over all.
It’s appropriate that “every tongue confess” is baptizing the Kogod Cradle in the new Arena Stage complex. That space was designed specifically for novel and challenging works, and with the bold experimentation of “every tongue confess,” that is certainly what Gardley has provided.
