Son (Wendell Pierce) and father (Charlie Robinson) fight it out in James Anthony Tyler’s Some Old Black Man

SOME OLD BLACK MAN
UMS Digital Presentation
Through January 18, free with RSVP
ums.org

Back in early 2018, I was supposed to see the off-Broadway premiere of Berkshire Playwrights Lab’s Some Old Black Man, but it didn’t work out because one of the actors in the two-character play, Tony winner Roger Robinson, had taken ill; the August Wilson regular passed away later that September. But his costar, Wendell Pierce, has carried on with the show, now bringing it to the University of Michigan’s UMS as part of his digital artist residency, dedicated to presenting works following all Covid-19 protocols during the pandemic lockdown.

In the play, written by James Anthony Tyler and directed by Joe Cacaci, Calvin Jones (Pierce) has just moved his elderly father, Donald (Charles Robinson), from the family home in Greenwald, Mississippi, to Calvin’s Harlem penthouse, since the son thinks his ailing father is unable to take care of himself anymore. Donald resents his son’s assumption and is ornery and disagreeable, while the even-keeled Calvin tries to manage this rearrangement of his household. It’s a kind of twist on the classic Odd Couple setup (coincidentally, Pierce was a regular in the 2015 Odd Couple reboot, as a friend of Oscar Madison’s); when Donald tosses a vibrantly colored afghan onto a couch so he can watch television comfortably, Calvin argues that it ruins the subdued décor of the living room. When Calvin prepares breakfast, he makes a healthy dish, which Donald refuses to touch. Their verbal battles bring up both good and bad memories along with some long-hidden secrets, impacted by pride, systemic racism, downright stubbornness, and misconceptions that might not be easy to heal.

Costars Wendell Pierce and Charlie rehearse Some Old Black Man with director Joe Cacaci

Pierce (The Wire, Treme) and Robinson (Sugar Hill, Mac in Night Court) — both of whom recently portrayed Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman onstage, the former in London, the latter at South Coast Rep in California — are completely in tune with one another in Some Old Black Man, their deep, distinct voices rattling your bones as if you were in the theater with them, not watching at home on a screen. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud lines amid the growing tension, and the intimacy is palpable; it doesn’t feel like you’re watching a movie but a live broadcast. The actors enhanced their emotional connections through personal touches; Pierce spent time sheltering in place with his father in New Orleans, while Robinson uses a picture of his adoptive mother as the photo of his character’s late wife, the prop placed on the piano so he can always see it.

To put on the play, which Pierce has called a “public health case study” for how to make theater amid the coronavirus crisis (you can watch a cool behind-the-scenes video here), Pierce, Robinson, Tyler, Cacaci, and stage manager Tiffany Robinson quarantined together in a home in west Ann Arbor, with plans to travel to the Jam Handy performing arts center in Detroit and rehearse in masks. They had to hold the start of those rehearsals on Zoom when Cacaci tested positive for the virus, but they eventually were able to move to the Jam Handy and ultimately film three complete performances over three days in November on Justin Lang’s elegant set, using multiple cameras but, of course, no audience. The result is a powerful, poignant piece of theater that, although written in 2010, resonates with what’s happening with today’s social justice movement as America takes a long, hard look at the continuing, devastating effects of racism. Available on demand through January 18, the play is followed by an illuminating talkback with the cast and crew. For more on Tyler (Artney Jackson, Dolphins and Sharks), you can catch a work-in-progress reading of his Talkin’ to This Chick Sippin’ Magic Potion performed by Theaterworks Hartford streaming February 7–26.