BWW Reviews: Plan-B Theatre Stages Entertaining World Premiere of THE THIRD CROSSING

Was the slave Sally Hemings the common-law second wife of Thomas Jefferson who bore six of his children?

In Plan-B Theatre Company’s excellent world-premiere production of “The Third Crossing,” playwright Debora Threedy doesn’t consider the historical disputes that date back to the 1790s, or the assertion of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society that there is insufficient evidence to determine that Hemings’ children were fathered by the third U.S. President.

Instead in “The Third Crossing,” which won the New York City-based Castillo Theatre’s 2010 Fratti-Newman Political Play Contest, Threedy uses the Jefferson-Hemings controversy as a springboard to examine the history of racism in American. But more important is the question the play poses: What meaning does race have?

The play’s title refers to an early belief that after crossing black bloodlines with white bloodlines three times would make a child “white”—but “the clearing of the Negro blood does not promise freedom” from slavery, the play reveals.

“The Third Crossing” bounces between Jefferson’s life at Monticello to the present day, including a comic scene with a “white” and “black” couple as the parents to a set of twins, one fair-skinned and the other dark-skinned. The wife playfully suggests that for Halloween she plans to dress her children as black and white Scotty dog salt and pepper shakers. Other scenes include another couple’s entanglement before the 1967 Loving vs. Virginia case that ended barriers to interracial marriage, and the 1980 shooting of two black men jogging with white women in Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park by a white man.

Under Jerry Rapier’s skilled direction, “The Third Crossing” is an entertaining play marked by tremendous acting from its six players. Kalyn West and Bob Nelson are the only actors portraying a single character; West plays Hemings and Nelson plays Jefferson.

West vividly shows the conflict from being a slave to Jefferson while in a loving relationship with him, and Nelson makes Jefferson a stern, passive slave owner.

Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin plays our narrator of sorts while taking on the role of Mildred Loving of the Supreme Court decision, opposite David Fetzer as Richard Loving, and other roles. Darby-Duffin and Fetzer are both highly talented actors, and their multiple roles reveal the range of their abilities. Equally impressive are Carleton Bluford, particularly as a son to Hemings, and Deena Marie Manzanares as Patsy Jefferson and in four other roles.

“The Third Crossing” continues the Nile-length string of superb productions by the award-winning Plan-B Theatre. The company is dedicated to socially conscious theater, with an emphasis on new plays by Utah playwrights, according to its objective statement.

Plan-B is the only theater company in Utah to receive direct National Endowment for the Arts funding over the past four years.
 
For more information on “The Third Crossing” and to view a video interview with playwright Threedy, visit the company’s website at http://planbtheatre.org/thirdcrossing.htm.

PHOTO CAPTION: Kalyn West as Sally Hemings and Bob Nelson as Thomas Jefferson.

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