I have missed the few assorted productions of UNCLE TOM’S CABIN that have popped up in small theaters over the past ten years, but these have been deconstructions or modern politicized adaptations of the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel from 1852. Within six months of the release of that all important American novel came numerous unauthorized stage adaptations including the one that would settle into the position of the version written by George L. Aiken. This three act coherent melodrama has been the dominating version and for the Twentieth Century and on it has been the only version left for posterity from that pre-Civil War era. So I was excited to finally have the chance to see the Aiken version presented in whole at the Metropolitan Playhouse.
After a kind of out of town tryout in Troy, New York produced by George C. Howard, Aiken’s adaptation opened in New York City at Purdy’s National Theater and ran nearly a year (The program notes stated that Aiken’s version also ran at Barnum’s Museum, but that was actually another version by H. J. Conway which favored the anti-abolitionist cause). For the 1850s this was a record breaking run and the play retained its immense popularity in touring productions and revivals throughout the century. Not only was UNCLE TOM’S CABIN the most important American play of the Nineteenth Century, but it changed the style of programing forever. Before UNCLE TOM’S CABIN a melodrama would play as a first act and then the “after piece” would follow, which was generally an unrelated variety program of songs dances and concert selections. The band being on hand for this part of the program would underscore the preceding play and therefor we get the genre melo-drama. Due to the length of the play and a feeling that the traditional after piece would tarnish the production as low entertainment, the play was presented by itself, thereby starting the tradition of the stand alone play in American popular theater.
Inserted into a melodrama would be various songs, mostly derived within the drama from natural sources. As the years went by and various adaptations came and went, UNCLE TOM’S CABIN as a whole might be littered with more songs and dances, which historically added to the play’s connection to the minstrel show. Indeed, it was the case that the black characters were all played by white actors in black face. Put that aspect aside, however, and you have a serious story about the tragedy of slavery, which like the novel, greatly influenced the attitudes that built up to why we fought the Civil War. In fact, Lincoln was said to have commented to Harriet Beecher Stowe that more or less she was “the cause of the great war.”
Uncle Tom’s subservient “Yes Massa” nature mixed with the insult of black faced actors cartooning the experience of black citizens have made the title politically poisonous. I would like to think that in the Twenty-first Century we could look at this work with fresh eyes and thanks to the humble production directed by Alex Roe, with an excellent small company doubling the numerous roles, this proves to be possible. The character of Uncle Tom is, in his non-combative way, insisting that God is looking after him and will do right by him. He is able to convince his master that slavery is fundamentally wrong, but his master dies before he can free Tom, resulting in Tom’s sale to the cruel Simon Legree. Despite Tom’s pleas for tolerance, Simon will not be told his business by a slave and beats Tom to death. In his last words Tom exclaims that he knows God will finally free him. A final image of Tom reaching up to the light as an Angel descends from the heavens was not realized in this production, but we got the idea. Other historical productions showed Tom reunited with the other main characters in a cabin in the sky, which is like the ending we get from Tup-Tim’s Asian ballet version in THE KING AND I.
There is no real point to staging Aiken’s UNCLE TOM’S CABIN today save for historical interest, for it rambles around for three hours and is definitely a production of mid-Nineteenth Century American Theatre. When acted by a fine cast, the dust of the years is not exactly blown off the piece, but the story can be told with intelligence and any relationship to the minstrel genre is virtually nonexistent. This production was distinguished by the contribution of George Lee Miles as Tom. Not only did he physically have a domineering presence, but his resonant voice explored the musicality of the words to mesmerizing effect and made Tom the noble human character he was always intended to be. Also excellent was Marcie Hendersen as Eliza, who escapes with her son Harry (a clever puppet) across the ice to Canada to meet her husband George (Rafael Jordan). Rick Delaney distinguished himself in his several roles, but especially as Tom’s sympathetic master who is converted to emancipator. Another historically controversial character is Topsy, who was played as an uneducated, undisciplined teenager with a heart of gold by Alex Marshall-Brown. This actress had, perhaps, the biggest challenge, for if the shiftless stereotypical “darky” character exists anywhere in the play it is with Topsy. In this production we can see Topsy as a product of her upbringing: sold into slavery as a baby and raised without education, religion, or family. She can be seen as a parallel to a girl of the contemporary urban ghetto. It is up to Ophelia (Lisa Riegel) to tame the unruly teenager. When she begins this seemingly impossible task, Ophelia is admittedly prejudiced, but through time comes to love Topsy and see her as a daughter. Aiken’s (and Stowe’s) imploring for change is very clear and any thoughts that UNCLE TOM’S CABIN is racist outside of racism as its topic, has not seen the play and is carrying an age old grudge against a work that is much more than the story’s splintered history. The play was worth it at the Metropolitan Playhouse and will be worth it in the future by other conscientious artists interested in exploring this most American of American plays.
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