Today's New York Times carries, "A Playwright Whose Time Seems to Be Now." It's written by Reeves Wiedeman.
Writing a play about the death penalty should put you squarely in the middle of a moral debate. Yet Nathan Louis Jackson, whose “When I Come to Die” traces the emotional turmoil of an inmate whose execution goes mysteriously awry, insists that his play is not political and that it takes no sides.
“I have a weird thing about killing folks,” the 32-year-old Mr. Jackson said. “That being said, if somebody did something to my wife or my daughter, I might say, ‘I don’t care what you do to him, as long as I never see him again.’ “
But his play, which opens on Thursday night, and is Mr. Jackson’s second Lincoln Center Theater production, may frustrate viewers who want a polemic. And that’s just fine with its author.
“You’ll have people who come to the show and say, ‘Let’s see if he’s for this, or against this,’ “ Mr. Jackson said. “Some people aren’t going to like that I don’t make a statement.”
His shoulder-length dreadlocks cuffed tightly behind his head, Mr. Jackson watched from the last row of the Duke, on 42nd Street, where LCT3 is putting on the show through Feb. 26, while the actors onstage ran through a scene in which an inmate rehearses his last words: “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining me on the day that I am to die.”
Chris Chalk (“Fences”) plays Damon, who is forced to wonder what to do with his suddenly extended life when a scheduled lethal injection doesn’t come off. He consults a priest (Neil Huff) and counsels a fellow inmate (David Patrick Kelly) while facing the uncertainty of whether he will face execution again, and when.
“Fascination with time” — and not the death penalty — Mr. Jackson said, is what got him going on the play, his second on a New York stage after “Broke-ology,” which was performed in 2009 at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. (It was directed by Thomas Kail, as is the new play.) Imagine Stephen Hawking and not “Dead Man Walking,” as a key influence.
“I started thinking about people in weird time positions, and these cats know exactly how much time they have left on this earth,” Mr. Jackson explained. “But what happens if you get more of it?”
He set the story in Indiana, where 20 men have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, rather than in Texas, whose 464 executions since 1982 have made it a political lightning rod. Yet Mr. Jackson still wanted to portray life on death row accurately. He researched the proper way to apply handcuffs; went on a prison tour with his mother-in-law, a former guard; and spoke with a cousin who had a son in prison. He also admits that his premise was improbable, though not impossible: executions are rarely botched.
Playbill has, "When I Come to Die, About a Spared Death Row Inmate, Opens Off-Broadway Feb. 10," by Adam Hetrick.
A death row inmate is granted an unlikely second chance in the world premiere of Nathan Louis Jackson's When I Come to Die, which officially opens Off-Broadway Feb. 10 after previews that began Jan. 31.
LCT3 presents the play about an inmate who survives a lethal injection, which is directed by Tony Award-nominated director Thomas Kail (In the Heights, Lombardi). Performances will continue through Feb. 26 at the Duke on 42nd Street.
When I Come to Die reunites playwright Jackson and director Kail. The two collaborated on the world premiere of Broke-ology at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and for LCT in 2009.
Chris Chalk (Fences) is cast as Damon Robinson, the inmate who gets a second chance, in a cast that also features Michael Balderrama (In the Heights), Neal Huff (Take Me Out), David Patrick Kelly (Festen) and Amanda Mason Warren (The Golden Age).
According to LCT3, "When I Come to Die tells the tale of Damon Robinson, a death-row inmate, who struggles to find faith and hope and understand why his life has been spared after he survives a lethal injection."
And from the New Yorker:
Thomas Kail directs a new drama by Nathan Louis Jackson (“Broke-ology”), set in an Indiana prison, about a death-row inmate whose execution is botched. An LCT3 production. In previews. Opens Feb. 10. (The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 W. 42nd St. 646-223-3010.)
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