Indy Theatre Habit

Last Friday night I drove to the Indiana Repertory Theatre – a professional theatre in downtown Indianapolis – to see a new play about Abraham Lincoln.  It is called “The Heavens Are Hung In Black.”  IRT playwright-in-residence James Still wrote it on commission for Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.  It premiered there last spring as a three-act play.  Indianapolis is only the second place for it to be produced, and this time it is a two-act piece, so in a way, this is another world premiere.  We are the first audience to see it in its tightened form.

At the end of the performance on Friday night, I was not the only one who made an affirmative little moan before leaping to my feet to applaud.  I think that both theatre buffs and history buffs would enjoy this piece.  I loved it because I am both.

History Buff

I fell in love with Abraham Lincoln last year while working on a commission of my own from the Indiana Historical Society and Storytelling Arts of Indiana.  2009 is the 200^th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.  He is, as a friend of mine once said, someone who ignites the imagination like no other public figure.

This new play ignites the imagination as well.  It takes place in 1862, just before Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.  Most people in the audience know exactly when the Civil War will end and when Lincoln will die, and how, but he does not, and those events are not part of the action of this play.  We even know that Lincoln will eventually decide to write the Emancipation Proclamation, but he does not, and it is by no means a given in this play.

It is fascinating to watch President Lincoln muddling through his life as best he can, playing with his rambunctious son, Tad, loving his high-maintenance wife, Mary, joking around with his disapproving Cabinet members and the White House staff, and agonizing over the war and the shredded country.

And fighting off his inner demons.  Playwright James Still said, in one of his posts to the IRT blog, that one of the most useful books he had found during his research was a book that I, too, found particularly moving and interesting: Lincoln’s Melancholy, by Joshua Wolf Shenk.  Lincoln struggled with what would now be diagnosed as depression all of his life.  In the period in which “Heavens” takes place, he is also mourning the very recent death of his son, Willie, and the overwhelming quantity of deaths of the soldiers on both sides of the War Between the States.  When one of his associates judges Lincoln for making a joke during such a serious time as a war, Lincoln calmly replies that if he did not find reasons to laugh, he would weep.

I laughed a lot during this show, but I cried a lot, too – often simply out of recognition, if that makes sense.  I found myself nodding often and thinking, “Yes! That’s the Lincoln family I know from my reading!  How cool this is to be seeing them ‘in person’ going about their lives!” 

I am most interested in Lincoln’s relationship with his family and his love of the arts. There is plenty in this show to satisfy both of those interests.  However, there is also plenty to satisfy people who are most interested in Lincoln as a political leader and military commander-in-chief.  It is fascinating to watch him try to deal with an ineffective general from a distance, for example.

There is also plenty to satisfy people who are interested in the whole historical context of Lincoln’s presidency.  In this play, through Lincoln’s dreams and memories, we meet several other notable figures from the time period that influenced his thinking.  It is fascinating to see Walt Whitman, John Brown, Stephen Douglas, Dred Scott, and others brought to life along with Abraham Lincoln. The scenes with wounded soldiers are heart-wrenching.

Abraham Lincoln is a huge subject and learning about him is a life journey.  I admire James Still for being able to find a way to let us in to the complexity of this subject without bogging us down and without making the subject trite.

What I loved most about the play was the message that I took from it.  We experience Lincoln’s night terrors and his frustrations, but also his dawning realization that “someone has to dream hope.”  He has to write the Emancipation Proclamation even if it is not perfect and even if it is not, in itself, enough.

In other words, it is important to do the work you feel led to do, even if you are not sure exactly how to do it, even if you are not sure why you are being led to do it, even if you are not sure that you will ever be fully rewarded for doing it, even if you know that it is only a fragment of what needs to be done.  Lincoln was, like each of us, a real and complex and flawed human being just trying to do the best he could with what he had and what he knew at the time, and yet 200 years later, the effects of his actions are still reverberating in ways we couldn’t have predicted even 5 years ago.

I left the theatre feeling inspired.

Theatre Buff

I also left feeling aesthetically pleasured.  “Heavens” is a satisfying piece of theatre art as well as a satisfying presentation of history.  Director Peter Amstel and his team of designers and actors brought James Still’s beautiful historical play to life in ways that delighted the theatre buff in me.

For one thing, I admired the director’s placing of the actors on the stage: their movements are completely natural and yet the overall visual is extra-textured and interesting.  People flow in and out of Lincoln’s life, dreams, and memories literally from all levels of his consciousness.

That flow is enhanced by the set designed by Russell Metheny.  It is permeable in a way that perfectly matches the transparency of the Lincolns’ lives in the White House and the stretching of boundaries in their personal lives.  In 1862, for example, there was no Secret Service and anyone could just walk in and ask the president for a favor.  President Lincoln encouraged his young son, Tad, to play in his office while he was meeting with his cabinet members.  Mrs. Lincoln hoped to cross worlds and connect with her deceased son, Willie, through the séances that she hosted. 

From time to time the set also splits into jagged parts that subtly mirror the broken pieces of the country.  (Nathan Garrison is the stage manager.)  And all the while, rows and rows of soldiers’ tents, each with a brave little light, surround the main space.  They are a silent but constant reminder of the physical proximity of the war that dominates everyone’s thoughts. 

I also appreciated the lighting design by Lap Chi Chu and the sound design and musical compositions by Victoria DeIorio.  Both evoke the haze and din of the ever-present war without overpowering the language or action of the play. 

Tracy Dorman’s costume designs are very cool, too.  At first I thought I was going to tell you all about Ward Hill Lamon’s animal hides and pistols, but then Mrs. Lincoln came out.  Her hoop skirts are HUGE!  I don’t think I had ever fully appreciated before how challenging that particular fashion must have been to navigate.

It took me a beat or two to get used to Nicholas Hormann as Abraham Lincoln.  The actor is not particularly tall, and Lincoln in real life reportedly towered over everyone around him.  I was surprised by how hard it was for me to let go of my expectation of seeing a very tall man on the stage.

However, Nicholas as Abraham subtly moves like a man who is uncomfortably tall, or not quite comfortable in his body, or something. Anyway, it works.  More importantly, he very believably portrays the strengths and vulnerabilities, the humor and the pain, in Lincoln’s personality.  That is what ultimately endeared me to him.

I loved that in this piece, Abraham and Mary Lincoln are shown as loving each other even though they are not particularly well suited to each other. Some accounts do not portray them this way, but one thing I think that even the pickiest of Lincoln scholars agrees on: their marriage was more complicated than most.  Mary Beth Fisher is exactly how I imagine Mary Todd Lincoln was in real life: frivolous and silly in some ways, iron-willed in others, absolutely in love with her husband even when he frustrates her, and, like him, doing the best she can with what she has and what she knows at the time.

(By the way, in the IRT blog playwright James Still says that he would also like to write a play that focuses on Mary Todd Lincoln.  After the show Friday night, he told me that he is going to disappear for a while now and work on a project that is just for him.  I don’t know if that is the “Mary project” or something else, but I hope he does get around to focusing on Mary some day.  I find her as interesting a character as Abraham, and I would love to experience James’ understanding of her.)

The actors who play the other characters in “Heavens” are all satisfactions, too.  Almost all play more than one role.  It is a pleasure to see the flexibility in their craft as actors.

I’ll just mention some highlights:

David Alan Anderson differentiates the determined Dred Scott, the placid Uncle Tom (yes, the original one, from the best-selling novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe), a funny, tottering Old Soldier caring for his comrades’ graves, and a long-suffering, funny-in-a-different-way White House Servant with such deftness that I was flabbergasted to read in my program that they were all played by the same man.

Ryan Artzberger always makes me swoon.  In this piece he gives the poet Walt Whitman a compassion and a knack for observation that are both very attractive.  His friendly portrayal reminded me that I have been meaning to read Whitman’s collected works.

Robert Neal portrays the fiery abolitionist John Brown but also someone named Billy Brown, whom I did not remember at all from my own research.  I kept listening and listening and trying to place him, then finally gave up and just let his neighborly news about Lincoln’s home town wash over me.  When I came home, I read in the program that Billy is a “quasi-fictional character created by Lincoln biographer Ida M. Tarbell” to tell anecdotes of Lincoln’s time in Springfield, Illinois.  In any case, Robert, through his portrayal of Billy, admirably gives us the feelings of affection that many of Lincoln’s friends felt for him, and which he returned.

I had not heard of Ward Hill Lamon before, either, or if I had, I had forgotten it.  In any case, I was glad to “meet” him through his actor in this play, Adam Crowe.  His clothes and mannerisms made me think he was a rough-and-rowdy character from the Wild West, but his concern for Lincoln’s safety seemed completely sincere, which made me like him.  Later, I read in my program that he first was Lincoln’s law partner and then was appointed U.S. Marshall of the District of Columbia because he was so concerned with Lincoln’s safety.

Diane Kondrat portrays two very different women who come to President Lincoln asking for his help in saving their loved ones’ lives.  Each of her portrayals is a precisely faceted gem.

Martin Yurek is a HOOT as the full-of-himself thespian, Edwin Booth.  In “Heavens,” Lincoln stumbles upon Booth’s acting troupe’s rehearsal when he is out for a walk by himself (again, pre-Secret Service days.)  Of course, at this time neither Abraham nor Edwin know that Edwin’s brother, John, will one day shoot and kill the president. They are just having a conversation about a playwright they both love: William Shakespeare.  I didn’t recognize Martin as the man who had played the Union Officer delivering bad news in the first act, but I enjoyed his “please don’t kill the messenger” attitude in that role.

Robert Elliott is funny, too, as the even-more-full-of-himself “Little Giant” - Lincoln’s famous debating opponent, Stephen Douglas.  That portrayal is quite a contrast to his portrayal of Lincoln’s stern secretary of war, Edwin Stanton.  Patrick Clear offers intriguing portrayals of both secretary of state William Seward and confederate leader Jefferson Davis.  Both actors’ portrayals of the secretaries made me want to read Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.  I know: I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet, either.

Jason Bradley nails the role of Lincoln’s earnest assistant, John Hay.  What a thankless job he had!  Especially when either Mr. or Mrs. Lincoln expected him to run interference with the other.

There are three very young (I know that is a relative term) actors who each brought out the mother in me with their performances.   Each does a good, effective job with his role or roles.  Elementary school student Anthony Prostyakov plays Lincoln’s rascally young son, Tad, who is processing his grief for his dead brother in his own way.  Teenager Gus Leagre plays the joyfully sweet spirit of Willie Lincoln plus a matter-of-fact Newsboy.  And fresh-out-of-college Nick Abeel plays Thomas Haley, a badly wounded young soldier: completely a man, but still so vulnerable.

Nick Abeel also gave the Prologue talk before the show on Friday night.  He is a cutie, but beyond that, I admired the sincere enthusiasm that he has for his work.

Speaking of the Prologue, I saw someone there with a yellow Enrichment Guide, so when the talk was over, I went back to the lobby and asked one of the ticket-takers where I could get one.  If you are an education junkie like me, be sure to get yours, too: there is a stack on the counter near the drinking fountain.  I haven’t had a chance to even bend the staple on mine yet, but in the past I have always been glad I picked one up, so I look forward to reading this one, too.  It is particularly thick.  (Yay!)  It was edited by the play’s dramaturg, Richard J. Roberts, and Milicent Wright.  Contributors include Katie Norton, Ellen Morgan, and Garret Schneider.

Short Version

Last week, my friend Christine – who is also one of my co-workers at my day job – asked if I was planning to see this play. 

“Friday night!” I said.  “’Wanna go with me?”

“Thank you, no,” she said, “because my husband and I might go.  We loved his (James’ Still’s) last play, but we’re not sure about this one.  I’ll look forward to reading your review to help us decide.”

Tonight as we were locking up for the night, she said, “So?  Did you see it?”

“Yes,” I said.  “My review is turning out to be even longer than usual, but I hope to finish writing it tonight when I get home.  I think I’ll be able to post it before I go to bed.”

“But in the meantime…?”

“But in the meantime, the short version is: I loved this show.  I bet you guys would love it, too.”

Box Office

James Still’s “The Heavens Are Hung In Black” continues on the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s Mainstage through October 25, 2009.  Please go to the IRT’s website or call the IRT Ticket Office at 317-635-5252  to make a reservation.

‘See you at the theatres!

Hope Baugh – www.IndyTheatreHabit.com and @IndyTheatre on Twitter.

P.S. – If you run your mouse over the photo above, you will see that it was taken by www.juliecurryphotography.com.