REVIEW: RELEVANT AND ENGROSSING, "STILL" NEEDS TIGHTENING IN PREMIERE STAGES PRODUCTION

By Ruth Ross

Every two years, Premiere Stages, in partnership with Kean University’s  Liberty Hall Museum, sifts through several thousand proposals for plays about New Jersey history by New Jersey playwrights to award one play with a Liberty Live Commission grant. Over the commission cycle, the script is developed and refined, three staged readings are held, and a professional Equity world premiere production is staged at Kean University. Needless to say, it’s quite an exhausting and daunting process and a welcome addition to the local theater scene!

Past productions have addressed Black life in New Jersey, and Benjamin V. Marshall’s historical drama, Still, is no exception. In this play based on true events in 1850s New Jersey, Peter has arrived at an abolitionist office seeking help from its director, William, an African American leader in the Underground Railroad, to find the family he lost as a child 50 years before when his mother and sisters were sold and he and his two brothers kidnapped. As the two men learn more about each other’s lives, they realize their vastly different pasts lead to a deeply connected future.

As anyone who watches Finding Your Roots on PBS knows, Black people have great difficulty with genealogy due to a lack of a paper trail documenting their family’s existence, identification and fate. The first act of Still focuses on piecing together details from Peter’s life, details that link him to William in ways neither expects. This in itself would make an entire play, and, indeed, the first act is tautly plotted and acted, albeit a bit repetitive regarding Peter’s history. However, the second act reiterates the story yet again, making the family reunion feel anticlimactic. The fault, I think, lies in overwriting; the runtime of two hours could have been tightened up to, say, 100 minutes performed in one act without losing the dramatic arc and tension.

That said, there is much to commend and recommend in this production. Brian D. Coats (far right) is superb as Peter Friedman, aptly named because he is a former slave who purchased his freedom. With his Southern accent and distrust of “a suit,” he’s crochety and argumentative—fitting for a man of his years—yet we feel his loss of not only his parents and sisters but his wife Vina (an adorable Ashley Nicole Baptiste (below, left)) and their children. His paranoia at being swindled and his sadness are palpable. He builds an invisible wall to protect himself, going as far as to move a chair across the room, far away from William Still, “agent” of the Underground Railroad.

William, portrayed by Carl Hendrick Louis (above, right), exhibits dignity and confidence befitting a free Black man in Philadelphia, although he is not careless regarding the security of his organization and the fearful man sitting in his office. He deftly unwinds Peter’s story, teasing out the details that lead to an astounding revelation (no spoilers here), closing the first act with a bang.

Able support is provided by D. Malik Beckford, Nafessa Monroe and Perri Gaffney in a variety of roles. As Griots, African tribal storytellers and musicians who preserved the genealogies and oral traditions of the tribe, the first two (along with Baptiste) don African masks and fabrics and dance to give form to Peter’s story and bridge scenes of the past. Gaffney is matriarchal as the oldest member of the Steele family (Peter’s original name).

Along with the Griots, shadow plays (so popular in the 19^th century, below), projections (by Taj Rauch), and African drums and masks (Marlon Campbell) ingeniously tie the events together. Kudos to David M. Barber (scenic design), Zack Gage (lighting design) and David Wright and Nicole Schwarz) for their fine work taking us not only to Philadelphia but to various sites in the South where William lived. Ali Turns’ costumes and Rachelle Dorce’s hair and makeup complete the effect.

Director Marshall Jones III does an excellent job eliciting moving performances from of his actors, but the repeated retelling of Peter’s history makes it difficult to maintain the dramatic tension.

In Still, Premiere Stages and Liberty Hall Museum have provided New Jersey theatergoers with the gift of an unfamiliar connection between slavery and the Underground Railroad in the state. For that and its superb performances, the play is worth seeing.

Still will be performed through July 28 on Thursday, July 18 and 25, at 1:30 pm,  Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 3  pm & 8  pm and Sundays at 3pm.
at the Bauer Boucher Theatre (Vaughn Eames Hall) on the campus of Kean University, 1000 Morris Ave., Union. For information and tickets, call the box office at 908-737-7469 or visit premierestagesatkean.com.

Photos by Mike Peters.