Sixty years ago, a 14-year-old Chicago boy named Emmett Till was kidnapped and brutally murdered in Mississippi. His family fought to have the body brought back to Chicago, and his mother made the bold decision to have an open-casket funeral, so that his mutilated corpse could make the cruelty of his death visible to the world. It did. Till became an icon of the Civil Rights movement.
Ifa Bayeza’s The Ballad of Emmett Till, which opened this week in a stirring production from Renaissance Theatreworks, is true to its title. It does tell the story of Till’s short life, and movingly enacts the circumstances of his murder. But it is more celebration than documentary–using music, song and stylized narration to honor and remember Till’s life as much as mourn his death.
As such, the majority of the show is devoted to painting a detailed portrait of “Bo” as he likes to be called. Bayeza and director Marti Gobel know that a truly human vision of Till makes his story all the more devastating and inspiring. Actor Marques Causey knows this too—his performance as Till is replete with humanity and vitality. He cajoles his mother into letting him spend the summer with relatives in Mississippi, and beams over a new hat and shoes he buys for the occasion. He has a stutter, but it doesn’t keep him quiet. “Talk–that’s what I do,” he says at one point.
Photo by Ross E. Zentner
For most of the play, Till’s world is painted with warm, musical brushstrokes—often with beautiful humor. Gobel has surrounded Causey with five versatile and charismatic performers–Derrion Brown, James Carrington, Allen Edge, Marvette Knight and Ericka Wade—who make Till’s world and family glow with humanity. They also play the men and women behind Till’s murder, but here they are faceless, speaking lines with their backs to the audience. The women whom Till “disrespects” is represented only by a white satin glove. Jahmés Finlayson, John Nicholson and Brian Bauman provide music for songs, and musical effects that add to the texture of Bayeza’s rich language. There is harrowing drama here, and a painful legacy to recall. But in Gobel’s hands, Bayeza’s play is theater of the richest kind, a feast of sound, stories, and necessary history that should never be forgotten.
