Review: Moving Performances Make 'The Whipping Man' a Must-See Play

The Whipping Man which opened this week at Marin Theatre Company, is a striking play about a Confederate soldier returning from battle at the end of the Civil War and two of his family's former slaves.

The slaves have been raised Jewish in the family, and as they celebrate Passover together, dark secrets are revealed. The stage can hardly contain the pain.

It is mid-April, 1865, and young soldier Caleb returns from defeat wounded and shamed. He finds two of the family's former slaves in the ruined house: the elder Simon, who is hopeful about the future, and Caleb's contemporary John, mortally embittered by his life as a slave -- particularly his visits to the Whipping Man, the plantation master who beat the slaves into submission.

Everything is shattered: beyond Caleb's gangrenous leg are the complex relationships of intimacy and cruelty that will never be the same.

The cast is stellar: L. Peter Callender plays Simon with dignity and compassion as he makes for freedom and sheds the past. It is left to him to perform a painful amputation on his former master (Nicholas Pelczar is Caleb), the cutting off of the diseased past.

It is also Callender's Simon who must soften the hatred of John (played with persuasive kind of madness by Tobie Windham) and balance the triangle of personalities. His is a thoroughly moving performance.

There are odd contrivances in Matthew Lopez' play, one of which is the setting of the story in a Jewish context.  The central idea is to establish parallels between Moses leading his people out of Egypt and the Union bringing about the freedom of slaves, but American slaves were from many diverse cultures and circumstances, their freedom achieved very differently.

The Passover Seder Simon presides over seems an odd stroke, but the fine cast powers through such unconvincing moments and just when we hope we can see some resolution, there are more secrets, more ruination, more disgrace that deeply mark this Richmond family. The single flash of joy is soon eclipsed by yet another revelation about the evil done by the family patriarch.

Jasson Minadakis' direction is stunning: the way he has John remembering the Whipping Man won't be easily forgotten. Kat Conley's setting of the destroyed Richmond mansion, with Ben Wilhelm and Will McCandless in charge of the dramatic lighting and sound, is disturbingly realistic.  The ravaged hall and broken staircase are gradually filled with things John steals (or "discovers,'' as Simon puts it) from nearby mansions, so that when Simon sings "Go Down, Moses'' at the Seder, they raise crystal glasses.

The Whipping Man is currently receiving a lot of attention in regional theaters. This compelling staging is a co-production with the Virginia Stage Company and runs in Mill Valley through April 21.

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