Theater For The New City's NORTHBOUND Tells Story Of Slaves Seeking Freedom

As part of a far-reaching celebration of African-American history month, Theater for the New City Executive Director Crystal Field is presenting Northbound, a play mixing real figures from the era of slavery and emancipation with a fictional story, Feb. 9 to 26.

Northbound, written and directed by Marvalee Peart, presents a sprawling story with a cast of roughly 20 and characters such as Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, John Brown and Stephen A. Douglas in their own words. Tickets are available by clicking Tix.

The play takes us back to a time of heroes, horrors and a war of words, showing us those committed to freedom and those passionately pushing to preserve the atrocity of slavery.

And it shows us the story of two slaves - Annabelle (Jessica Davis) and Tongo (Chris Bones) - who devise a plan to escape a plantation, mixing real speeches and characters with a fictional story.

They meet at the Tully plantation, where untold injustices occur at the hands of slaveholder Benjamin Tully, played by Donal Brophy, and heir to the Tully fortune, Collin Tully, played by Matthew Courson.

"In a strange way, they are our Romeo and Juliet. Among the chaos, they find they have a connection," Peart said of the slaves. "The hardship on the plantation pushes them to want to escape and head north, which is why it's called Northbound."

We see this story play out against the larger canvas of the country, in an epic tale including the raid on Harper's Ferry, a description of a three-day-long auction of 450 slaves and other incidents that dramatize the institution and injustices of slavery.

"You're dealing with a very difficult time in history," Peat said. "There are action sequences. It's a drama with a love story. The story doesn't stay on the love. It's about people who are finding each other."

We even see the caning of Charles Sumner, who was attacked viciously by fellow legislator Preston Brooks after making an anti-slavery speech.

"He ridiculed some politicians. He said slavery is their harlot, their girlfriend. They're in love with her. They'll never give her up," Peart continued. "They attacked him the following day."

In addition to action and struggle, we hear how words swirled around slavery and get a chance to listen to Lincoln as well as advocates of slavery such as Stephen Douglas arguing against abolition.

"The speeches gave me the idea to make the script. I wanted to put these speeches together," Peart said. "I knew people wouldn't come to the theater to hear a bunch of people giving speeches."

Lincoln, played by Denny Desmarais - who captures the look and possibly even the cadence of the great politician - gives powerful speeches such as the famous "One house divided cannot stand" oration, using language to lay the groundwork for freedom.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand," Lincoln says in a speech eerily prescient after the recent, divisive election. "I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided."

We also hear Lincoln expressing his views in private in letters, a little bit the way we hear politicians' views in emails today. "It's Abraham Lincoln writing a letter to a friend of his named Joshua," Peart said. "Those are his words."

And we see and hear abolitionists such William Lloyd Garrison played by Alan J. Kelly, John Brown played by Jim Saxton and Frederick Douglass played by Carl Ellis Grant in their words.

But Peart also shows us those passionately making the case for slavery, such as Stephen Douglas played by Mick Cross, who ran and railed against Lincoln.

"The speeches this man wrote in 1859 resonate today with the fear mongering he was spreading about the new frontier, opening up Kansas," Peart said.

Douglas talked about the sovereign power of states to decide, arguing states have the right to determine what's right for them.

We hear him tell us it would be a mistake to "allow the free Negroes to flow in and cover your prairies with black settlements." He portrays allowing freed African Americans into every state as a kind of invasion. "Do you desire to turn this beautiful state into a free Negro colony?" Stephen Douglas asks.

Northbound shows us how people can be woefully, passionately wrong with every atom in their body, how words matter and how speeches drive change for better and worse.

"I wanted to show slavery form various points of view. Typically, we see slavery on the plantation. We don't know there was a politician named Stephen Douglas and great speeches," Peart said. "Had it not been for abolitionists, black, white, men, women, pushing the government to move away from this, it would have taken longer for emancipation to take place."

The show also seeks to transcend the physical shackles of slavery, putting it in the context of a larger history. After several slaves are killed, we watch their bodies lifted up in a regal procession.

"They carry these dead slaves out. The next time we see them, they are walking through the halls of what appears to be a palace," Peart said. "A pharaoh and queen sit on a throne. Soldiers lay the slaves' bodies at their feet. It's tying it back to before slavery of the Africans. Africa was a different world."

Northbound, written and directed by Marvalee Peart, February 9 - 26, Thurs. - Sat 8:00 PM and Sunday 3:00 PM, Cino Theater, Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., New York, NY. Tix. $18/$15 students/seniors. 212-254-1109, www.theaterforthenewcity.net, www.smarttix.com