Sally & Tom

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Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks has often used American history to explore race relations in America today in such plays and screenplays as Venus, The America Play, Father Comes Home from the Wars, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and Native Son. Now she has turned to one of the most controversial episodes from the time of the Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. In her ambitious, epic and entertaining Sally & Tom, now having its New York premiere, Parks cuts between two time frames: 1790, Monticello, Virginia, and contemporary indie theater today, with each of the eight actors having a role in both parts. It is heady provocative theater but it also has lighthearted satiric sequences. It asks bold questions and poses questions to which it has no answers. Did Sally Hemings love Thomas Jefferson? That is left as an unanswered question. They were together for 30 years but did she have a choice?

Jefferson remains a complex man: the author of The Declaration of Independence in which he wrote “All men are created equal,” a man who personally owned 600 slaves whom he did not free on his deathbed as many of his equally famous contemporaries (i.e. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin) did. It is also mentioned that he was a “man of his time” and also that Sally Hemings was the half-sister of his late wife Martha and looked amazingly like her. Parks’ play allows us to hear Sally’s side of the story as well as view Jefferson from a 1790 perspective.

In the very first scene it becomes apparent that we are watching The Pursuit of Happiness, a new play from the Good Company, an indie theater group that has been known for radical and experimental work that no one came to see but now wants to reach a wider audience and find a producer who will foot the bill. African American playwright Luce is in an unmarried relationship with her director and costar Mike, similar to that of Sally and Tom whom they are playing, and just like Sally Hemings who bore Jefferson six children, Luce discovers that she is pregnant. The play alternates between scenes backstage among the actors in their dressing rooms and onstage as they rehearse the play with opening night only two days away, making changes as they go along.

However, the play covers possibly a few too many themes: color-blind casting of an Asian playing Jefferson’s younger daughter Polly who asks how many Koreans were around Virginia at the time of the play; Kwame, a minor action star, who worries that his fans won’t follow him to see a play in which he plays James Hemings, an enslaved valet; and Luce has a dilemma about integrity or commercial success: cut the woke speech she wrote for James or lose their backer who loves the play otherwise. It is as though each character has his or her own story though it all does come together by the end.

Aside from the questions about how race was handled in 1790 (Sally refuses to do anything other than play the game even though she is close to Jefferson, Jefferson has to decide which slaves to send away and rent out in order to pay his debts, James’ slap of a local landowner causes all sorts of repercussions, Sally is left behind when Jefferson becomes Secretary of State as her delicate condition will embarrass him in the capital New York), the play satirizes small struggling theater groups.

The characters must also work sets, costumes, lights, construction, press, dramaturgy and stage management as there is not enough money to hire other people. Because they are beholden to one backer, they must put up with his notes and demands for changes in the script. Luce knows that her powerful speech for James to address the local landowner so outspokenly is much too outrageous for 1790, but she wants to see how it works in a modern context. When a major actor quits at the last minute, a minor and inexperienced actor has to take his place but is partly unprepared to do so.

Director Steve H. Broadnax III keeps all this on a low boil so that the play bubbles along as both comedy and drama, always threatening to break out, but never going beyond a certain threshold. Dominating the play is Sheria Irving as both playwright Luce and as the actress playing Sally Hemings. She is vivacious, wise, conflicted and attractive. Her Luce and Sally blur to the point that she is the same person in both time frames. In her scenes with her partner Mike she is a modern Black woman who knows what she will stand for and what she won’t.

Tony Award winner Gabriel Ebert makes Jefferson a complex, unknowable person. He is aloof enough that he never gives away more than is known about him. He is both sympathetic and despicable, often at the same time. As the minor film star with his own fan club as well as Jefferson’s ambitious valet, Alano Miller gives a bigger than life portrayal of a man with his own sense of importance and an overweening ambition. All three characters are given long monologues that are at the heart of the play and receive ovations.

Daniel Petzold’s Geoff is amusing playing three very different roles in The Pursuit of Happiness, the messenger from President Washington in which he doesn’t know his lines, the racist neighboring landowner and Jefferson’s land manager. He is also concerned about his responsibilities for sets and costumes for the play-within-the-play. Kate Nowlin is imperious playing both Jefferson’s older daughter Patsy, jealous of the attention shown to Sally, and the dramaturg and choreographer.

Sun Mee Chomet as Scout who is the stage manager as well as Jefferson’s innocent and inexperienced younger daughter Polly gets a good deal of mileage out of being the sole Asian performer. Leland Fowler gets to play a great many different scenes as Sally’s brother-in-law Nathan, and as modern actor Devon who takes over another role and begins a surprising and sudden affair with Geoff which appears to break down the walls he has built around himself. Kristolyn Lloyd is excellent as Sally’s bitter sister Mary and as the actress Maggie, Luce’s confidante being the only other Black actress in the company, and as a woman who herself has a secret.

The scenic concept by Riccardo Hernández allows for smooth and easy transitions between backstage and onstage scenes. His 18^th century interiors of Monticello are particularly evocative and elegant even though he does not use a great deal of scenery to accomplish it. Alan C. Edwards’ subtle lighting is never obtrusive to the historical scenes. Rodrigo Muñoz’s Colonial costumes are extremely elegant while his contemporary clothes are completely convincing. This is complemented by the hair, wig and make-up design of J. Jared Janas and Cassie Williams. The sound design by Dan Moses Schreier includes violin and fiddle music which has a period sound as does the original music by the playwright and Schreier both for dancing and mood. Edgar Godineaux has done a beautiful job with the social dances of the Colonial period.

Sally and Tom (through May 26, 2024)

The Public Theater, in association with The Guthrie Theater

Martinson Hall, 425 Lafayette Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 212-967-7555 or visit http://www.publictheater.org

Running time: two hours and 40 minutes including one intermission