Robeson Sings Again

Paul Robeson was a man of the future, a man who dreamed of a better world and who worked tirelessly to see it realized. The definition of a Renaissance Man, he was one of the first actors to speak out loudly about societal and political ills, particularly against racism and in favor of Communism. Between his stage career and his political activism, his life seems ripe for the stage.

While Paul Robeson was certainly dramatic, Robeson, Miriam Jensen Hendrix's new play premiering at the Blue Heron for a limited run, is not so much. Long and repetitive, it reduces this fascinating man to a windbag who makes a handful of points over and over again.

The play's main problem is its general lack of focus: it doesn't know if it wants to concentrate on Robeson the actor, Robeson the activist, or Robeson the conflicted brother, father, lover, and errant husband. Were each of these very worthy and dramatic subjects fully examined to their core, or were only one subject the focus of the play, it would feel more even. By wasting too much time to subplots that go nowhere, and jumping too randomly from angle to angle, the play has very little clear direction. Historical accuracy is good, of course, but the play is not a documentary. It needs a central focus, a primary conflict, not just a re-creation of events. The story runs out of dramatic energy early on, and limps around aimlessly for the rest of the play, returning again and again to the same subjects and bringing none of them to a resolution. Ultimately, this fascinating and most stageworthy character is brought to dullness by mediocre writing.

The only constant throughout the play is Robeson's blind devotion to what he sees as the socio-political ideal: Communism, especially as practiced in the now-former Soviet Union. He speaks at length about the lack of racism in Communist Russia, comparing it with the rampant violence and discrimination against Black people in America. This earns him the ire of the country as a whole, and especially of J. Edgar Hoover and Sen. Joe McCarthy, who set out to destroy him. The two men speak about the evils of Communists in scene after scene, beating the horse long after it has expired. Such seems to be the overall tone of the play.

The performances are, by and large, as flat as the script, although Ezra Knight does some good work in the titular role, nicely filling the Blue Heron Theatre with his rich, sonorous voice. As his saintly, ever-suffering wife, Abena Koomson speaks in a monotone and reduces her already two-dimensional character to one. None of the other interchangeable characters makes much of an impression, not even Bruce Kronenberg as McCarthy or Robert Lydiard as Hoover. Keith Oncale's wooden direction may well be as much at fault for that as the script or the acting.

Paul Robeson's story is inspiring and important, and deserves a great play to keep him in the public consciousness. Maybe the next one will have more depth to it.

Robeson runs until May 1 at the Blue Heron theatre. Call 212-352-3101 for tickets.