In April 1865, just as the Civil War ends, a wounded former Confederate Army officer stumbles into his ruined home in Richmond, Va. There he encounters two of his family’s slaves, who are now free.
But something is different about this soldier and these former slaves. They are all Jews. And the time is Passover.
The resulting interactions are the subject of the 2009 play “The Whipping Man” by Matthew Lopez. The Milwaukee Repertory Theater will be producing this play beginning Feb. 5 and running through March 16.
Rep associate artistic director Brent Hazelton is directing the production. In an interview with The Chronicle on Jan. 22, he said this play has been one of the most frequently produced contemporary plays in the country during the last few years.
“It’s a great American play,” Hazelton said. “It deals with so many themes that are so relevant to the world we live in today,” among them “What it means to be truly free. How do we deal with changing circumstances? How does society respond and adjust?”
That it took place during the Civil War also has great appeal to Hazelton, who described himself as “a Civil War nerd.”
But that does not diminish the show’s contemporary pertinence because “every major ideological conflict we face in this country right now was at the root of the Civil War, and so many are addressed in this play. It is a period drama that feels really contemporary,” he said.
That these characters are Jewish and the time is Passover, the festival of freedom — in fact, that the climax of the play’s action is a seder — probes even deeper into the issues.
“For Jewish southerners,” many of whom did own slaves, “what a mind-blowing thing that must have been… a phenomenal cultural-religious-spiritual contradiction” to see a Passover when their own slaves were freed, Hazelton said. “And contradiction always makes for great drama.”
Whether there were Jewish slaves is uncertain from the historical record, Hazelton said, but it was fairly common for southern slave-owners to raise slaves in the owners’ religion.
So it is not implausible for Jewish-owned slaves to have become Jews, and that “leads to another fascinating contradiction” in the play, Hazelton said, as the slaves experience what amounts to “a second Exodus.”
Hazelton said that while he knew a lot about the Civil War, he did not know much about Judaism before starting work on “The Whipping Man.” He not only did research but also consulted with Jody Hirsh, Judaic education director at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
In fact, Hirsh held in mid-January a mock seder for Hazelton, the cast, assistant director Frank Honts and four others involved in the production, Hazelton said.
“One of the things I found so interesting about Judaism is the flexibility of ritual and belief,” said Hazelton, who added that he came from a Catholic background.
This trait is also embodied in the play, as the characters, who don’t have many of the traditional seder materials, have to improvise. In addition, the slaves add a few African American ideas to the play’s seder, he said.
The production is being presented in the Stiemke Studio, the Rep’s chamber theater. “Sometimes certain plays want a more intimate relation between the actors and the audience,” said Hazelton, and this smaller space will create an effect “like everybody is in the same room.”
The play stars Josh Landay as Caleb, the Jewish Confederate soldier, James Craven as older former slave Simon and Ro Boddie as younger former slave John.
A few special events associated with the play’s run will focus on its Jewish angle.
On Wednesday, Feb. 19, the Rep will host a panel discussion after the show on “Jews, Blacks and the Legacy of Slavery,” co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the local NAACP.
The JCC will show the film “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” on Thursday, Feb. 27, 7 p.m.
And a Jewish Community Day is scheduled for Sunday, March 2, 2 p.m., with a discounted admission and a talkback led by Hirsh.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit MilwaukeeRep.com or call the ticket office, 414-224-9490.
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