Theater Review

Rep's Whipping Man leaves indelible mark

Nobody made of flesh will leave a performance of The Whipping Man unaffected.

The play and the production that opened Friday at Little Rock's Arkansas Repertory Theatre will definitely leave its marks behind.

Set in the days immediately following the end of the Civil War in April 1865, the play asks questions, and leaves many of them unanswered, about the nature of slavery, of faith and of brotherhood, and how the horrors of war can warp even the souls of good men. And there's a whole closetful of family skeletons waiting for playwright Matthew Lopez and the three-person cast -- as good as the Rep or any theater can field -- to reveal in their proper times.

A badly wounded Confederate captain (Ryan Barry) comes home to his wealthy Jewish family's ravaged Richmond, Va., townhouse to discover that his family is missing and the only remaining residents are ex-slaves Simon (Michael A. Shepperd) and John (Damian Thompson). A Passover Seder is the center point, linking the slavery of the Jews in Egypt to more recent slavery of blacks in America, and there's enough comic relief -- mostly in the first act -- to ameliorate the sometimes gut-wrenching drama that arises in the second.

Shepperd shines as the steady example of family fidelity (his limits are tested and even broken before the final curtain), and Thompson throws the light right back as a flawed foil. Barry has in many ways the hardest job, in part because, more so than the other two, his character is the object of many metaphorical lashes.

Director Gilbert McCauley has added just the right amount of action to what could otherwise be a rather talky play. Yslan Hicks' hard work in ensuring the verisimilitude of the costumes isn't as evident as it should be, but get a good look at Barry's very authentic Confederate uniform in the short time it's fully visible.

The Whipping Man runs through Feb. 8 at the Rep, Sixth and Main streets, Little Rock. Ticket information is available by calling (501) 378-0405 or online at therep.org/attend.

Metro on 01/24/2015

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