Russell (Norm Lewis, left) and Mr. Jenkins (James Foster Jr., right) bond over checkers as Theo (Bryce Wood) looks on, in Lonne Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark Old Men.
In 1969 the two-year-old Negro Ensemble Company mounted the off-Broadway premiere of Lonne Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark Old Men. “A remarkable play,” raved Clive Barnes in the New York Times. Now, in a joint presentation with the Peccadillo Theater Company and producer Eric Falkenstein, the NEC revisits this gut-punch period piece, offering a rock-solid production that hums along toward inevitable tragedy, chronicling the socioeconomic plight of Harlem in the 1950s through the deeds and decisions of one troubled family.
Russell (Lewis) looks for love from a girl (Felicia Boswell) with ulterior motives. Photographs by Maria Baranova.
The hum is quite literal under director Clinton Turner Davis’s staging. A low, persistent thrum underscores nearly every scene, keeping the audience on edge and providing an aural reminder of the constant tensions the play’s seven characters live with night and day. They are so busy blaming one another for their problems that they rarely question their own actions, leading to suffering at the start of the play and more on the horizon. Amid a bounty of strong performances and no shortage of foreshadowing, the only questions are who will pay the dearest price and what will it cost the others.
Norm Lewis, who more than once in his career starred as Sweeney Todd, the demon barber, here portrays Russell Parker, a barber demeaned. A former vaudeville dancer who long ago lost his footing, he took to cutting hair for lack of any other marketable skill. With a clientele of nearly zero, he spends his days playing checkers with his friend Mr. Jenkins (James Foster Jr.) in his failing shop while missing his deceased wife, Doris, arguing with his two scheming sons, Theo and Bobby (Bryce Michael Wood and Jeremiah Packer), and fearing confrontation with his daughter, Adele (Morgan Siobhan Green).
Lewis’s straightforward performance strikes the proper tone for his quietly complicated character. Depending on what lens one views him through, Russell is lazy, selfish and weak, or a victim of circumstances, or a clever manipulator who plays it close to the vest. Elder’s script, concerned with what it means to be a man, a man who works, and a man who is boss of his house, is full of rich dialogue tinged with irony and informed by racial injustice. After Russell spends a morning job hunting, he and Theo commiserate:
Russell: Lookin’ for a job can really hurt a man ... I was interviewed five times today, and I could’ve shot every last one of them interviewers-the white ones and the colored ones too.
Theo: Yeah, looking for a job can be very low-grading to a man, and it gets worse after you get the job.
Theo is as lost as his father but twice as dangerous given his misguided ambitions. Dreaming big but never applying himself (“First you was going to be a racing car driver, then a airplane pilot, then a office big shot,” bemoans Russell), he ultimately becomes a bootlegger, cooking up the corn whiskey that will lubricate the path to his family’s downfall. He is aided not only by his brother, who is himself a rising star in the world of burglary, but by a neighborhood “leader” named Blue Haven (Calvin M. Thompson).
Blue (Calvin M. Thompson, right) puts Theo (Wood) in his place.
Despite his moniker and his dark blue suit, Haven is every bit the red devil to whom Theo sells his soul. The duo convince Russell to use the barber shop as the base for Haven’s “Harlem De-Colonization Association.” Purportedly, this organization’s goal is to drive out white ownership of local businesses, but it is clearly a front for a numbers racket and illicit liquor. Russell, knowing full well with whom he is dealing, is drawn in by the lure of easy money and agrees to cooperate. Soon enough, Theo and Bobby suffer the consequences of their actions while Russell falls prey to a pretty face (Felicia Boswell) and his desire for one last chance at love (“You can call me a fool too, but I’m a burning fool!”).
Adele, meanwhile, travels her own path. At first, the de facto matriarch following her mother’s early death, she was the breadwinner of the family until Theo took over with his illegitimate income. Thus freed of her obligations, she goes out on the town, falls for the wrong man and ultimately intersects with the downward spiral of her brothers and father.
As for the play’s memorable title, while it may seem that Russell and Mr. Jenkins, are the only old men on stage, Blue, in recalling his tough childhood, reminds us that age can be relative to circumstance: “Before I was ten, I had the feeling I had been living for a hundred years. I got so old and tired, I didn’t know how to cry.”
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men runs through May 18 at Theatre at St. Clements (423 W. 46th St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; matinees are at 3 p.m. Sunday. For tickets and information, visit thepeccadillo.com.
Playwright: Lonne Elder III
Direction: Clinton Turner Davis
Sets: Harry Feiner
Costumes: Isabel Rubio
Lighting: Jimmy Lawlor
