Theater Review - The devil you say

The winning script of Onstage Atlanta’s first Hometown Playwright Series is When the Devils Be Callin’. Stephen Peace’s play transpires on a Georgia slave plantation in 1839, and, as the title portends, the enslaved characters speak in the dialect of the place and time.
In an era of political correctness and The Wind Done Gone, When the Devils Be Callin’ risks controversy with its liberal use of the n-word and dialogue like “Thou shalts not kills” and “They do be’s mighty white.” It’s thus disappointing that a play willing to be so bold merely builds to a clumsy revenge tale. Even so, Onstage Atlanta’s production initially finds some intriguing characters and relationships.

Trouble arrives at White Plains plantation in the person of a teenage girl named Lottie (Lee Anna Lambert), a poor relation to the lady of the house. Lottie has just lost her family in a mysterious fire, as she explains to the young cook Sophie (Cherise Jefferson) and older washer-woman Aunt Ella (Allison Upshaw). The playwright insightfully suggests that poor whites tend to be more brutally racist than moneyed slaveholders, and in her savage treatment of Sophie and Ella, Lottie proves to have the personality of a vicious child.

White Plains has been free of children for years, despite the efforts of the young “master,” Seth (Matthew Carter), to conceive with his wife Lula Mae (Jennifer Dersin) — or with Sophie, his longtime mistress.

Throughout When the Devils Be Callin’, what goes on in the cookhouse is more interesting and convincing than the events in the manor house. Peace draws the Sophie and Ella characters with sympathy, and we eagerly attend their conversations: Sometimes they lightly banter, at other times they look to each other for support. Under the direction of Marcia Edwards, Jefferson effectively conveys Sophie’s conflicted heart as a lovelorn slave while Upshaw intelligently portrays both Ella’s innate intelligence and her grief at seeing her child sold.

The other roles invariably turn into cliches. Seth at first seems an oxymoron — an enlightened slaveholder — and he has a credible exchange with longtime house slave Uncle Henry (Anthony Farrell), who’s subservient but knows how to manipulate the system. But for the rest of the play, Seth is defined by his simplest impulses, and the script never digs too deeply to learn what makes him tick.

Likewise, Dersin has a nice moment when Lula Mae’s genteel manner collapses and her long-suppressed “cracker” accent comes through. But the character is given too little to do. And while Lambert effectively captures Lottie’s cruel and coquettish qualities, hearing her drawl “Say-eth” for the umpteenth time really works your nerves.

Alas, when the plot becomes increasingly lurid, Devils goes completely off the rails. A sudden death in one scene and a too-literal supernatural episode near the end are laughably staged. And for plot convenience, one character eavesdrops on another who, though alone, preposterously confesses aloud past misdeeds in a soliloquy that ends with maniacal laughter. Even when the script isn’t unfolding like a soap opera, the audience feels a step ahead, figuring out plot points long before the people on stage.

When the Devils Be Callin’ involves themes of racism and the sins of the father, but it ultimately proves to be less like William Faulkner than sleazy Southern treatments like Mandigo. At first you approach it with interest and an open mind, but you can only watch with dismay as the plantation story turns Tara-ble. curt.holman@creativeloafing.com