Art of Wise – Antebellum Horror in the Deep South

 

Karla C. Payne, Justus Payne, Sheldon Ingram and Adjoa Opoku-Dakwa Credit All Photos: Credit: L. Martello/18ricco

If you’d want to experience a good example of how those in power use fear as a tool of subjugation, you might want to reserve a ticket or two for the world premiere production of Art of the Wise.

The play, the fifth in playwright Mark Clayton Southers’ series of ten works, each set in a different decade of the 19^th century, centers on two families living on a cotton plantation in 1822 Deep South Alabama.

Jenny Malarkey, Joseph McGranaghan* and Maddie Kocur

The slave owning Wise family is shown in marked contrast to their enslaved cotton field workers, who, as was the custom, took the surname of their master.

In the past I’ve said that playwright Southers is one heck of a story teller, and his latest opus follows suit by having a strong narrative that’s both intricately written, intensely entertaining and emotionally rousing.

The drama wastes no time grabbing the audience’s full attention as the initial song of sound designer, Ben Cain’s lullabying crickets soon fades into one of barking hounds on the trail of a runaway slave. Jonathan Wise (Joseph McGranaghan), the plantation owner with the same sort of sociopathic proclivities displayed by Calvin Candie, the sadistic ruthless plantation owner in the film Django Unchained, eventually catches up with Bendoo Wise (Sheldon Ingram) and wrecks Southern justice on the captured man.

Yanna Mavrogeorgis (Violinist) & Adjoa Opoku-Dakwa (Amahle) Credit: L. Martello/18ricco

Interestingly, the play’s narrative is abetted by percussive bursts from drummer Zoshe Nowe and plaintive violin melody performed by Em Kohut-Kegarise and Yanna Mavrogeorgis on alternate evenings. I assume it was director, Monteze Freeland who decided to make these effective aural add-ons which bolster the ambient mood of the play.

The vast bulk of the action takes place in a Tony Ferrieri-designed set that includes the master’s house on two-thirds of the stage with the slave family household filling the remainder.

Adjoa Opoku-Dakwa and Jenny Malarkey

Jonathan Wise’s wife, Sarah (Jenny Malarkey) comes off as a privileged Southern belle with a mollified tone concerning her slaves. She is somewhat more empathetic and liberal-minded when it comes to the treatment of her “human property” than her husband, but as a product of her times, is subservient to her husband, though she does speak her mind often and resolutely.

Their teen aged daughter, Samantha (Maddie Kocur), reluctantly suffers through the art lessons foisted on her by her parents and seems more interested in exploring her budding teenaged libido than painting images on canvas. Nevertheless, the paintings are an important element in this brutally honest look at plantation life.

 Not so is Amahle Wise (Adjoa Opoku-Dakwa) who soaks up the art lessons with a fervor. She’s also the apple of her father’s eye.

Karla C. Payne and Sheldon Ingram

The loving interaction of the slave family is a vivid contrast to the cool and somewhat abrasive relationships of the plantation owner’s family. Oni Wise (Karla C. Payne) is a warm, strong and open-hearted maternal figure who obviously loves her husband, Amahle and younger son, Albert (Justis Payne). She tries as best she can to ease the pitfalls of her loved ones’ spirit -shackling bondage and encourages her husband’s implausible dream of buying his family’s way to freedom and moving them back to his African homeland.

One pivotal role comes from a manor house slave named Campie (David Minniefield), who comes with a gripping tale that Southers wisely incorporates in a later scene that provides a much-needed catharsis. It’s one to wait for and is so effective it had the audience strongly reacting with verbal emotion.

The playwright manages to keep hold of the audience’s attention) at least I can speak honestly of my own experience) during the play’s two hour and 15-minute run time. Masterfully, Southers manages to create both powerful, sometimes dark, dramatic moments interspersed with tender, joyful moods that create a satisfying balance and a substantial amount of impressive theater art.

Art of Wise, a production of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, is at the Madison Arts Center, 3401 Milwaukee St. in Pittsburgh, through May 4. For tickets and more information, go to https://www.pghplaywrights.org/.