{"id":1363,"date":"2010-06-25T20:25:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T20:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebzbproductions.ebzb.org\/review-compliment-dar-he-the-lynching-of-emmett-till\/"},"modified":"2010-06-25T20:25:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T20:25:00","slug":"review-compliment-dar-he-the-lynching-of-emmett-till","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/2010\/06\/25\/review-compliment-dar-he-the-lynching-of-emmett-till\/","title":{"rendered":"Review\/Compliment – Dar He: The Lynching of Emmett Till"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raleigh News & Observer<\/span><\/p>\n

\nApex-based actor-playwright weaves facts, questions<\/div>\n
\nBy Roy C.
\nDicks, Correspondent<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nCHAPEL HILL — The basic facts of the Emmett Till case are well known.<\/p>\n

The
\n14 year-old African-American was brutally beaten and murdered in 1955
\non a visit to relatives in Mississippi. His white assailants deemed
\nthis appropriate punishment for Till’s whistling at a white girl. The
\nassailants, who admitted in court to kidnapping the boy but denied the
\nmurder, were acquitted of all charges.
\nThe recent re-examinations
\nof the case, including documentary films and the exhumation of Till’s
\nbody for DNA testing, have shed new light on the incident, while still
\nleaving unanswered questions. Apex-based actor-playwright Mike Wiley
\nhas woven these facts and questions into a riveting evening of theater,
\n“Dar He: The Lynching of Emmett Till.” The cryptic main title becomes
\ndevastatingly clear within the show.
\nDescribing the production as
\na one-man show is misleading, for Wiley portrays nearly two dozen
\ncharacters during the 90-minute piece: black, white, male, female,
\nyoung, old, city slicker, farm worker. The distinct differentiations of
\naccent, voice range, body language and characters’ mindset would be
\nimpressive enough if played one after another, but Wiley changes back
\nand forth in an instant, often creating the illusion that two people
\nare conversing. The barrage of characters is a little overwhelming at
\nfirst, but the audience adjusts as they become familiar.
\nWiley
\navoids caricature portraying the female characters, morphing easily
\ninto the giggling store clerk, the gregarious old aunt, the
\nunapologetic mother of the murderers. He also finds enough genuine
\nhumor to give the horror some respite.
\nWiley employs no changes
\nof costume or makeup. His sole prop is a white cloth that can become a
\nhandkerchief, a whiskey bottle, even a headless chicken. Cigarettes,
\nmoney, a bottle of Coke, a steering wheel — all are mimed with skilled
\naccuracy.
\nAll of this could draw attention to the actor,
\nthe
\ntour-de-force aspect overshadowing the subject matter. It is to Wiley’s
\ngreat credit that he focuses his formidable talents on the
\ngut-wrenching story, allowing the audience to clearly understand each
\ncharacter’s strengths and foibles. His portrayal of the white
\nassailants is chilling, that of Till’s grieving mother heart-rending.
\nThis
\nproduction is extremely confident and polished, thanks to the
\nexperienced eye of director Serena Ebhardt. There is no wasted gesture,
\nno extra padding. The pacing of the first act is forceful and
\ncompelling as it leads up to the murder; the second act less so only
\nbecause the courtroom and funeral scenes are innately less intense. Ben
\nDavis’ multimedia design enhances Wiley’s projections of photos from
\nthe period and integrates the various sound effects, from gospel choirs
\nto gunshots.
\nThe piece is hard-hitting and unsparing, the
\ndepiction of the beating and mutilated body especially disturbing. But
\nthat should stop no one from attending this painful but necessary
\nreminder of how far we’ve come — and how far we still need to go — in
\nrace relations in this country.<\/div>\n

EbzB Productions – Your World Is Our Stage!
\nhttp:\/\/www.ebzb.org<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raleigh News & Observer Apex-based actor-playwright weaves facts, questions By Roy C. Dicks, Correspondent CHAPEL HILL — The basic facts of the Emmett Till case are well known. The 14 year-old African-American was brutally beaten and murdered in 1955 on a visit to relatives in Mississippi. His white assailants deemed this appropriate punishment for Till’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,30,49,63,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compliment","category-dar-he","category-mike-wiley","category-review","category-serena-ebhardt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebzb.org\/WPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}