Review: THURGOOD at Portland Playhouse

All history lessons should be as riveting as George Stevens, Jr.'s THURGOOD, now running at Portland Playhouse. And at a time when voting rights are actively being gutted, civil rights are on the line, and the actions of the Supreme Court make for daily dinner conversation, this is a lesson we badly need.

THURGOOD follows the 58-year law career of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Born in 1908, he served on the court from 1967 to 1991. Needless to say, he lived in interesting times.

Stevens' one-person play is framed as a speech to students at Howard University, where Marshall got his law degree in 1933. In it, he talks about his growing up, his education, his time as a lawyer for the NAACP, and then his tenure as an appeals court justice, the U.S. Solicitor General, and finally on the Supreme Court.

Marshall grew up in racially segregated Baltimore, and the early injustices he witnessed and experienced were formative. At Howard, he learned to use the law "as a weapon," an approach he followed his whole life as he fought tirelessly against racial injustice. At the NAACP, his most famous case - Brown vs. Board of Education - changed the course of the country by striking down the idea of "separate but equal" in public education. His work on the Supreme Court earned him the nickname "Mr. Civil Rights."

The Portland Playhouse production stars Lester Purry, who steps into some pretty big shoes (and not just Marshall's - both James Earl Jones and Laurence Fishburne have previously played the role). He plays the role with poise, dignity, and humor, doing ample justice to Marshall's reputation as an excellent storyteller. The roughly 2-hour run time flew by.

THURGOOD runs in person through February 27. There is also a digital version available on-demand. However you watch it, this play is guaranteed to enlighten, engage, and entertain. More details and tickets here: https://portlandplayhouse.org/shows-events/thurgood/