The Exonerated
As part of its inaugural year, Stormfield Theatre presented two staged readings of The Exonerated. The work-in-progress nature of a staged reading isn't my usual repertoire, but I wanted to get a look at this new company "dedicated to living playwrights and their works." With the support of some heavy hitters in Michigan theater, the production of this Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen–penned script held a gravitas well suited to an exploration of wrongly convicted individuals on death row.
Stormfield artistic director Kristine Thatcher directs the piece and is also counted among the cast of ten. The script is the product of years of research and interviews, with the characters' words all taken verbatim from these sessions as well as trial transcripts and other sources. Without devolving into lamentations, the play doles out the stories of six real people — three black men, two white men, and one white woman — sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, and imprisoned for as many as two decades before their exoneration and release.
Perpetuated by stillness, the only staging in this staged reading is the dozens of superbly executed light cues by designer Tim Fox and stage manager Katie Doyle. Lights are trained on each of the actors, who remain seated in a single row, and they instructively brighten and dim according to whose story is being told, allowing the audience to follow the six interwoven tales with ease. Michelle Raymond's sound design provides some foreboding effects for emphasis, but for the most part there is a prevailing quiet; the sense of helplessness and injustice needs little assistance to pervade. With characters' voices taking the fore, and faces disappearing into backlit obscurity as the narrative shifts, the effect is certainly powerful, and a chief contributor to the production's successes.
The one-act play spends a long time examining the crimes, their investigations, and the subsequent prosecution and sentencing. In one of the most affecting scenes, Gary (Daryl Thompson) clearly explained how he was coerced into making a hypothetical statement about the murder of his parents, as the prosecutor bent and omitted these same words to make them sound like a brutal confession, a stunning exercise in contrast. Many of the convicted were plagued by lazy or racist investigations, but Sunny (Thatcher) was accused by the guilty party, who "gave her up" as part of a plea bargain. She is surprisingly positive as she describes her and her husband's tandem lives on death row, communicating only through letters, and about the difficult transition back to regular life. Equally touching are the spiritual arc of David (Rico Bruce Wade) and the lyrical expressions of poet Delbert (James Bowen). The ensemble of Monica Sanders, Christina Traister, Dick Hill, and Tobin Hissong are strong in their many supporting roles; although some characters' accents ran together a little, the lighting picked up much of the slack.
A talkback followed each show, made less lively by the palpable weight of the well-presented — if one-sided — argument. With its strong choices contributing to a moving staging, The Exonerated was quite convincing about the wrong done to these select individuals, evoking outrage and disbelief. This production certainly upheld the Stormfield mission to depict "stories that illuminate our times while they delight and entertain," and piqued my interest about what bold statements the company will make in the future.
April 16, 2010