Need a meatier mental challenge than Wordle?
Consider the constitutional sticky wicket of a real-life Civil War figure by the name of Benjamin Butler. The lawyer-turned-Union Army major general found himself in the crosshairs of a conundrum of conscience, one whose legal miscalculation could seal the fate of an enslaved man who had escaped.
It all plays out in "Ben Butler," the searing, seriously comedic work by Richard Strand. The prescient work that dramatizes a surprising Civil War narrative premiered at New Jersey Repertory Company in 2014 before moving Off-Broadway to 59E59 Theaters. It is aging well, and is now up at Pure Theatre through March 12.
For Butler, the Civil War was the time that tried his soul, and in ways that weren't necessarily playing out on the battlefield. In his well-appointed office at Fort Monroe in Virginia, where he sips sherry and messes with his subordinates' heads, he found himself hosting enslaved escapee Shepard Mallory as he demands to be heard, and be saved.
But don't be misled by the high-stakes, deeply grave subject matter that are tackled in this play. In Strand's deftly humorous hands, the empowered and the oppressed are allotted equal agency — and their ensuing repartee is as transfixing as it is terrifically entertaining.
Here's the history book Cliff's Notes version: Benjamin Butler was a career lawyer championed by Abraham Lincoln who was hustled up the chain of command. When he served as a Union Army major general at Fort Monroe, three enslaved men turned up there, seeking sanctuary.
Now to Strand's dramatization. One of those men, Shepard Mallory, demands an audience with the quasi-accidental major general. The two men soon find themselves in an intellectually rocker of a back-and-forth, with the commander offering solutions that fall short of having to take in the three, and the enslaved man holding strong for his desired outcome.
The mental volleys between the two serve as the main focus of the play, in exchanges that are intricately layered, as assumptions are belied and Butler's military, legal and moral mettle is tested.
And it does so while upending all manner of tropes that have long lost their purpose, while also dramatically reconstructing a historic narrative that challenges others that withhold agency and strategy among the enslaved Black during the Civil War.
While Mallory regularly outmaneuvers the general, he does so with little charm, but with full-on strategic acumen.
To prove a point, he derisively deploys the stereotypes heaped on the enslaved, impersonating the behavior of those who dumb themselves down for the comfort of their captors and generally speaking his mind in ways that provoke ire. But Mallory himself is incapable of stooping to conquer, or just simply survive, an inclination that has resulted in some savage scars across his back.
The 19th-century American playing field of Butler's office may not be level between commander and escaped in the eyes of the law, but the intellectual plane they share is another story. They are well-matched in both wits and eccentricities, and watching their negotiations twist and turn toward the eventual, historic end is great sport.
As directed by Mark Landis, the players, R.W. Smith as Butler and Michael Smallwood as Shepard, are well-matched, too. As a man of privilege grappling with a sense of right that he just can't quit, Smith's relatable, yet somewhat oddball general delivers the genuine article.
And Smallwood is thoroughly inspired, channeling the off-kilter aspects of the curious, razor-sharp Shepard, while still managing to endear himself to both his counterpart and the audience alike.
But the curiously feel-good undertow emanating from the Cannon Street Arts Center stages is never at the cost of the take-no-prisoners laughs of this life-or-death chess match. The two also gain considerable dramatic ballast from the ensemble's other two actors: Addison Dent as the duty-bound Lt. Kelly and Josh Wilhoit as the irascible Confederate Maj. Cary.
All this transpires on Richard Heffner's Civil War-era set, which serves to firmly place the action in a military man milieu. Landis's period, fiddle-rich sound design adds ambiance as well.
In short, it is crackling, smart writing, well-played by committed actors. It immediately snapped me out of my lingering pandemic-induced slumber to sit up, take note and fully engage in the potential of live theater.
It's irresistible, this noodling out of just two are going to come out of a battle that is at once with and against one another. And, with its a fusillade of rabid-fire, cunning fun, "Ben Butler" demonstrates that, then and now, humans contending with humans, for better and for worse, is at once meaningful, rich material and ripe for the chuckling, too.
Go figure out your tickets. Wordle can wait.
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February 22, 2022 at 11:00PM
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Review: Pure Theatre's 'Ben Butler' crackles and captivates - Charleston Post Courier
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