"THE EXONERATED" at the Shubert Theatre
BY LUCIA MAURO
As I watched the stories of six former Death Row inmates unfold on the Shubert Theatre’s stage during this much-anticipated touring production of "The Exonerated," I found myself questioning the role of theater as strongly as the American justice system. And when a thick envelope – soliciting donations for Northwestern University School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions – fell out of my program, I couldn’t help but feel disturbed over the propaganda-esque nature of the experience.
It’s not that I didn’t sympathize with these innocent victims or become outraged over a flawed legal environment stacked against those who are poor or not savvy enough to engage in hide-saving plea bargains. My discomfort had more to do with the inherent one-sided nature of what amounts to a series of emotion-tugging verbatim interviews parading around as "theater" than any sort of anger over the omni-complex capital punishment issue itself.
When the issue is as heated and topical as the death penalty – like any compelling court case – it screams out for multiple viewpoints, and a much deeper and probing examination of what led to these wrongful convictions in the first place. By that, I mean delving into many dimensions of race relations, how our socio-political system subtly and overtly continues to keep people down and ways we can change society at its core – within all of its "systems" (education, economics, politics) and its more elusive components, like religion, parenting, peer pressure and those unseen expectations that haunt us all.
I know that such an expansive exploration could never be contained in one play. Yet "The Exonerated" – for all its devastating stories – spends the bulk of its 90 minutes giving a plot summary of the crimes of which these five men and one woman were convicted, along with excerpts from their trials and skimming-the-surface accounts of their prison experiences and the ongoing psychological ramifications of life on the inside – the latter a theme I believe should be the crux of this work.
Authors Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen traveled across the country three years ago and interviewed 40 of the then-89 former Death Row prisoners. The interviewees came from all walks of life (although "The Exonerated" intimates a more rural leaning, especially via the banjo-heavy sound design) yet share the dehumanizing fate of being sent to Death Row (where they spent anywhere from two to 22 years), were later proven innocent and freed into a world they could no longer trust.
The writers experiences could have resulted in a fully fledged play (not unlike Bruce Graham’s outstanding and balanced capital punishment-themed drama, "Coyote on a Fence," recently produced by Shattered Globe Theatre).
A searing point could have been made if, for example, they streamlined the piece to the harrowing story of Sunny Jacobs and her common-law husband Jesse, both erroneously accused of killing two Florida police officers in 1976. They had been driving with acquaintance, Walter Rhodes (the real killer who confessed much later). And it was Rhodes who lied about his friends’ involvement. Jesse was executed in 1990 in one of the most gruesome cases of electric-chair malfunctions; Sunny was released two years later. The evocative accounts of Sunny’s and Jesse’s letters to each other could form the basis for a stand-alone play.
But we also hear the stories of Gary Gauger, an Illinois farmer wrongfully accused of his parents’ murders (two members of a biker gang later confessed); Robert Earl Hayes, an African-American horse groomer at a Florida race track, wrongfully accused of raping and murdering a white women (forensics evidence helped get him released); David Keaton, a teenage African-American, wrongfully accused of armed robbery and murder (the real killers were later apprehended); Kerry Max Cook, a shy young man wrongfully accused in Texas of the murder of a woman in his apartment complex, and one who suffered horrific brutalizing in prison (DNA evidence linked the girl’s boyfriend to the murder); and Delbert Tibbs, a politically charged African-American who was hitchhiking and wrongfully accused of the rape of a white teenager and murder of her boyfriend (his conviction was later overturned after activists from the outside won him a new trial).
While the authors’ goal of showing diverse cases is a noble one, it also has the effect of footnotes or sound bites. The direct-address nature of the production – staged with the self-conscious earnestness of a story-theater class, the actors seated on black-leather stools facing the audience – could easily (and probably more effectively) have been applied to a documentary film in the talking-head mode. In fact, any one of these cases could have been made into a film or a bonafide stage drama. Even a TV series, like "Law and Order," could have treated the subject with more dimensions.
Some may argue that the simplicity of the staging, with actors speaking the words of these victims, humanizes them and makes their plights immediate. In this rare case – and coming from someone who strongly believes in the redeeming power of live theater -- I disagree. Instead of actors over-emoting in the roles of these actual people on stage, I would have rather listened directly to the real individuals relay their stories.
And the fact that this was all taking place (with celebrities like Brian Dennehy and Marlo Thomas getting attention for their appearances as Gauger and Jacobs, respectively) at the Shubert Theatre (rather than a town hall or university campus), with top ticket prices of $65, made the whole experience ring false.
After the performance, the real Sunny Jacobs and Gary Gauger (accompanied by his wife Sue) made a surprise appearance and spoke from the heart about their experiences. Those five minutes were the most genuine and provocative of the entire evening. They made the actors – many directed by Bob Balaban to the point of displaying the false patina of an over-eager acting exercise – pale in comparison.
Dennehy and Thomas, while capable actors, did not offer life-altering performances. Thomas, especially, opted to shape Jacobs into a perpetually breathy and naïve flower child (with flashes of invincibility that were not convincing). The most powerful interpretation came from Bruce MacVittie as the sexually confused and traumatized Kerry Max Cook (one of the most non-manipulative heart-breaking performances of the evening). And, despite their supporting roles, Johanna Day and Tracie Thomas, made gently evocative statements through calibrated understatement.
Ed Blunt as the self-dignity-preserving Robert Earl Hayes and Chad L. Coleman’s spiritually charged David Keaton were moving. And William Jay Marshall emitted an edgy reflective mood as the Zen-like Delbert Tibbs – who represents the work’s conscience. But Jim Bracchitta and Larry Block as various bullies and cliched characters were thoroughly unconvincing, almost cartoonish.
Perhaps the authors are telling too many stories regardless of the work’s minimalist (but loaded) structure. What could have been transformative ultimately came across as flat and manipulative to me. And I longed for a more nuanced and honest assessment of some of Delbert Tibbs’ more profound statements, like how the system "messes with your sense of personal power" or the pain of having to learn how to feel and be human again. Now that would have made for a challenging work of art.•
"The Exonerated" runs through February 16 at the Shubert Theatre, 22 W. Monroe. Tickets: $15-$65. Call 312-902-1400.
