WHIPPING MAN

No one asleep here

Newest Rep show is a riveting tale; just ask those at the premiere

The Whipping Man, artistic director Bob Hupp said moments before the curtain rose Jan. 23 -- figure of speech, there is no curtain -- on The Arkansas Repertory Theatre's first production of the new year, is a "sleeper." Hardly! The acting, script, costumes and stage design are brilliant, and the crowd gathered for the premiere certainly drank in its energy (and the complimentary champagne following the curtain call).

Wait a minute.

What Hupp meant is this production (first performed off-Broadway in 2011) doesn't trail a big-studio movie or heavy media attention. It's a sleeper hit, he inferred, and it may well be. The script is terrific, the acting spirited and the set and costume design impressive.

The play opens on a Confederate soldier, returning home to Virginia to find two former slaves -- an elder man and a coeval -- struggling to survive. As he lies lame on the floor from a gunshot wound, and as all three prepare to celebrate a Passover Seder, the freed men at once acquaint him with the hardships of their bondage even as they cope with devastating new revelations.

This one "raises issues that give us whole new ways of thinking about our past and our future," Hupp said.

The show runs through next Sunday.

-- Photos and story by Bobby Ampezzan

High Profile on 02/01/2015

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