Jailhouse Talk

A good metaphor for The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail is the scenery used: sparse and effective, but a little empty. The play takes place on a stage bare except for the two beds in the prison cell, which sometimes turn into benches, and a chair or two, which are sometimes used as a boat. And these are sufficient.

At first the play, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, seems a little fragmented, and Thoreau (Josh Frost) ditsy rather than wise. But in the course of the performance, the play takes form. Lawrence and Lee use a series of flashbacks explaining Thoreau's civil disobedience and his getting out of jail, as well as a dream sequence involving the Mexican war. Also, various characters, such as Emerson and Thoreau's mother, appear to say things from the past, as voices from Thoreau's memory.

The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail

By Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

Directed by Carl B. J. Fox

At the Leverett House Old Library

Tonight at 8 and 10:30 p.m.

The surrealism works to build the play's image of Thoreau, by organizing the play according to his character and not strictly to historical events. By the end of the play, all the fragments have weaved themselves together to form a coherent picture of a Thoreau who seems wise and who has learned that he cannot divorce himself from the world.

Thoreau is, of course, the play's focus, and all the other characters seem to exist merely as his foils. Emerson (Elijah Siegler) is portrayed as a well-meaning, pontificating old man who is, at the end, rather pathetic because he does nothing to act on the ideals that he inspires in Thoreau. Other characters such as Thoreau's brother (David Javerbaum) who shares and makes corporeal Thoreau's ideals, and the man from the school committee (Ted Caplow) who attacks Thoreau for not sticking to the established texts, are also well portrayed.

THOREAU is quite funny in parts and is very well acted, especially by Frost, who dominates stage time and dialogue. Especially well done are the scenes of Thoreau as a teacher, getting his students to learn and teaching Bailey (Jason Solomon) how to write his name.

The play is slickly produced, with the music--a flute and a drum--well integrated into the performance. The production does a good job of evoking an aura of the surreal, except when it tries too hard and overdoes it during the dream sequence, making the scene seem cliched.

The problem with Thoreau is that, in the end, it seems a little thin. The messages of noticing nature, bucking authority and getting involved have been preached over and over, and no new twists are added here. Thoreau's treatment of Williams (Karl Lampley), a runaway slave, even seems a little paternalistic, undercutting its supposed morality. Because the play's idealism is old and worn out, it does not affect one as it might have. Thoreau's story--except the sequence about the death of his brother, which is affecting--is not emotionally powerful. The play lacks the emotional or intellectual weight to make it anything more than well done and funny.

Still, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail is enjoyable and effective. Many of the problems stem from the script, and the actors and director Carl B.J. Fox do very well with what they are given. On the basis of the production and the humor, it makes the Leverett Old Library worth spending your night in.