Sunlight filters through a western window and illuminates Nat Turner, with his hands and feet shackled, on the floor of his cell.
Turner, a formerly enslaved preacher who believes his crimes were dictated by a heavenly master, considers the sunset to be his last. He will be executed with prejudice the next morning.
“What do you call a preacher whose congregation is his chains and shackles?” he says, addressing first the chain he is holding, then God. “You have placed a window within the walls of this prison, and even here, you have shown me heaven.
“But how can I go tomorrow in peace if my work on Earth has come to nothing?”
Gavin Lawrence delivers a powerful performance as the title character in “Nat Turner in Jerusalem,” a 2016 drama by Nathan Alan Davis produced by American Players Theater through Nov. 10. Tyrone Phillips, founding artistic director of Chicago Definition Theaterdirects the two-man production at APT’s Touchstone Theatre.
Gavin Lawrence plays the title character in Nathan Alan Davis’ “Nat Turner in Jerusalem,” at the American Players Theater through Nov. 10.
Set designer Nathan Stuber elevates the square edges of Turner’s prison, a space of muted grays and browns with a fairytale-like scent. The stonework at the back looks like a castle, with gothic tree branches and a dungeon-like door. Willow James’ sound design, an otherworldly spiritual blend, adds to an out-of-time aura.
For this 90-minute drama, Davis was based on true story: In the summer of 1831, Turner led a slave rebellion against white slave owners, citing prophetic visions. Dozens of people died. The reprisals were brutal. Turner, 31, was hanged in the fall.
Nat Turner, charismatic, passionate, doomed to fail, defies definition. Is it divine justice, blessed by God, interpreter of mystical signs in eclipses and blood red corn? Is he a heartless killer, unfazed by killing children, delusional?
Jim DeVita, left, and Gavin Lawrence play an imprisoned lawyer and preacher in “Nat Turner in Jerusalem.”
Like Turner, Lawrence, a senior company member at APT who in recent seasons has leaned towards directing and dramaturgy, has the magnetism of a tent preacher. His voice commands and persuades.
Lawrence’s Turner is unwavering in his faith, capable of performing small miracles. He doesn’t need to raise his voice to provoke a chill: “What do you think holy revenge is like?”
In Turner’s confinement, lawyer Thomas Gray (Jim DeVita) arrives to extract a story that can sell, like Truman Capote or the journalist in “Inventing Anna.” He also claims to have a higher calling: “the destiny of my country is still at stake.” Royalties for the distribution of Turner’s confessions “far and wide” won’t hurt.
Gavin Lawrence plays Nat Turner and Jim DeVita plays the lawyer who wants to sell his confessions.
DeVita shifts smoothly between the exhausted, wounded lawyer and Turner’s jailer, a guard who has cautiously befriended Turner. In transformation, DeVita modulates his voice and feigns a slight limp. It’s subtle and effective, with at least one costume change that barely requires the blink of an eye.
“Nat Turner” tilts the balance of power between prisoner and scribe with a delicate hand. As Gray pressures Turner for information about other rebellions (“stop the doomed conspiracy before it starts”), Turner negotiates to preserve his own narrative.
Gavin Lawrence and Jim DeVita will perform opposite each other in “Nat Turner in Jerusalem” at the American Players Theater through Nov. 10.
“This was not a war, Mr. Gray,” he says. “This was a warning.”
Seeking to achieve productive discomfort and deep engagement, Phillips adds a framework to emphasize both. At the beginning of the play, a free Turner circles the edge of the stage with a bloody sword and a Bible, making brief eye contact with each audience member. He will soon be captured by a white man armed with a rifle.
Pay attention, the gesture says. Stay alert. Look at yourself, honestly, in this historic fight.
‘ captimes.com ‘
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