Playwright: Tracey Scott Wilson. At: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn. Phone: 312-443-3800; $25-$71. Runs through: June 6
At one point in Tracey Scott Wilson's fictionalized docudrama, on one side of the stage, an activist minister addresses his congregation, while, on the other, a racist infiltrator stands before the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, both simultaneously imploring their brethrenwith the same words, verbatimto "help us keep the South strong."
And in this moment is encapsulated the conundrum proposed by Wilson's intellectually provocative diagram of a civil rights protest in Birmingham circa 1963: the necessity for both the good and the bad guys to employ the same tactics, stratagems and rhetoric in order to achieve their goals, with dissension within the ranks common to both factions, and the human weaknesses of the agitatorswhether it be the inability to keep their mouths shut, or their pants zippedruthlessly exploited to escalate the damage to innocent bystanders. History might be written by the victors, but sooner or later, even the armies holding the moral ground find themselves confronting the cost of making sausages or omelettes.
It's no secret in a free society that ideological crusades are often conducted like warsno other paradigm yet existing. But if we are to appreciate the dramatic stakes, we must comprehend the passion fueling those willing to risk their lives, ethicsindeed, their very soulsin pursuit of their mission. Wilson's parable might wear its symposial structure overtly, but it still presents us with blood-stirring oratory, poignantly intimate emotions and considerable battlefield humorthis last chiefly at the expense of Mick Weber and John Hoogenakker's seen-it-all FBI agents and Dan Waller's dim-bulb cracker, whose setbacks were heartily applauded by the audience at the performance I attended.
Billy Eugene Jones, Teagle F. Bougere, Demetrios Troy and Karen Aldridge act up a storm to lend empathy to personalities written as intellectual constructs, while Nambi E. Kelley and Tory O. Davis deftly sidestep the temptation to sentimentalize the humble citizens suddenly thrust into media scrutiny. And if the resulting ambiguityeven the Feds lose their morale eventuallyprove too brain-wearying, you can amuse yourself picking out the analogies to the career of the late Martin Luther Kingbut then you'll be missing the whole point of the play.