KC Rep "Harriet Jacobs" review by theatreguy120

An Evening with a Brave and Determined Woman

Rating: 5

Harriet Jacobs

Kansas City Repertory Theatre

"I was born a slave...."  So begins the novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet A. Jacobs, also known by her pen name as Linda Brent.  Jacobs used the pen name and several other changed names in her novel in order to protect those she left behind after escaping her slave master and making it to freedom.  The Kansas City Repertory Theatre is now telling her story on stage with a stage play adaptation written by Lydia R. Diamond and titled Harriet Jacobs.

Imagine being able to see and hear your two children, but not being able to speak to them or touch them for seven years.  This was a life that was forced upon Jacobs, who hid in an attic crawl space for seven years in order to fool her slave master, known in the play as Master Norcum, into thinking she'd made it to freedom in hopes that he would not continue his pursuit of her.  Master Norcum, (David Fonteno), is a man whose mere physical presence on stage creates a frightening visage quite capable of killing Harriet.  Fonteno's deep and commanding voice is ever present throughout the play as a reminder that no matter what Harriet does he will always be there.  Harriet (Nambi Kelley) gives a performance which is flawless in its execution as she portrays the determined, intelligent, and clever woman who was forced to suffer horrible indignities.

Within the story, Harriet tells of her life and those who enter and leave her life, such as Tom (Phillip James Brannon), a man she hopes to marry.  Tom is effectively portrayed by Brannon as a kind, powerless man wanting something he will never have.  Besides Tom, the audience meets the most important individual in Harriet's life, her grandmother (Cheryl Lynn Bruce).  Bruce's performance accurately depicts a woman determined to survive and protect Jacobs at any cost.

The story relates how Harriet becomes intimate with a different white slave owner, Samuel Treadwell Sawyer, performed earnestly and sincerely by Gilbert Glenn Brown.  It's easy to see how Jacobs would turn to Sawyer as an escape from the ever present Norcom, as Brown portrays Sawyer with a gentleness and true desire for her and her well being.

Harriet gives herself to Sawyer and he fathers her two children.  By becoming pregnant, Harriet hopes that Norcum will no longer want her; however, this only makes things worse with him now promising to sell her children if she doesn't submit to his advances.  This is what motivates Harriet to run away because she's certain their real father will want them and will buy them from Norcum since she will no longer be around for Norcum to use her children as pawns to get her to go to bed with him.

The adaptation of Jacobs' work holds to the storytelling narrative found in the original book, even so far as to show visually on stage the words as they are written by Harriet during her experiences as a slave.  Thanks to the incredible projection lighting work of J.R. Lederle and Jeffrey Cady, the audience gets to see lines from her novel as they are projected onto the set throughout the action of the play. To see her words as they are being written and to hear the scribbling of her pencil on the paper, one can't help from being drawn into her story.  At one point as she's intently writing, the projected words overwhelm the stage and for a period of time the stage and the actors below become the canvas for her writings, which is a fitting tribute to the writings of an incredible woman.

Harriet Jacobs runs from October 29 to November 21st at the Copaken Stage located in the H&R Block building.

read the review at KC Stage