National Theatre (Olivier)

A theatre and book review:

James Baldwin began to write this play in the summer of 1952, after he returned to New York after spending four years in Paris. While he was there he completed his first novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain, and after he borrowed money from Marlon Brando he returned home in an attempt to sell the novel. The Amen Corner, like Go Tell It On the Mountain, is set in a black church in Harlem and is semi-autobiographical in nature, as both works feature young men who are brought up in a religious environment which is simultaneously nurturing and stifling, and each must decide whether to reject the church and the hypocrisy contained within it, in order to be true to himself and his personal desires, or embrace it and become subjugated to the parent or community that desires to keep him within it.

Unlike Go Tell It On the Mountain, whose protagonist is the young man John, The Amen Corner's central character is Sister Margaret, pastor of a church whose members respect her more than they embrace her. She is firm in her faith in God, but she is unyielding and harshly critical toward those who would challenge or question her opinions as the church's leader. She has a teenage son, David, who plays piano in the choir, who she puts forth as an example of a good Christian young man and as a personal vindication to those who doubted that she could raise him as a single mother, given the numerous worldly temptations that brought down many black young men in postwar America.

Margaret is shaken by the news that her former husband, Luke, a talented jazz trombonist, has returned to town to perform a gig downtown. Neither she nor David has not seen him for the past 10 years, and Luke is in poor health due to tuberculosis and the ravages of life on the road. He turns up at her apartment, located beneath the church, just after Sunday service, and both David and several church elders learn about the secret that Margaret has hidden from all of them, which leads to crises on several levels. David feels betrayed by his mother as well as his father, and must decide whether to follow her wishes to stay with her in the church, or to pursue a career as a musician. The elders question whether Margaret is spiritually fit to lead the church, given this new information about her and Luke. And Margaret herself faces a crisis of confidence and faith, as her son appears to be drifting away from God and to the lure of the world, while Luke's presence makes her realize that her own house is not in order.

The National Theatre's production of The Amen Corner was a very spirited one, filled with humor and pathos within the rich experience of a sanctified black church. When Sister Margaret asked the congregation to bow its heads in prayer during the first act, I started to do the same, until I realized I was watching a play and not in a church service! The gospel songs were very well done, and each actor, major or minor, was very good and portrayed his or her character quite accurately. This was another superb National Theatre performance, and at £12 it is one of the best bargains in London at the present time. ( )

definitely an interesting snapshot of life in harlem, and how religion, poverty, and race can intersect.

from the introduction:
"No one yet knows, or is in the least prepared to speculate on, how high a bill we will yet have to pay for what we have done to Negro men and women."

and from the play:
"...being a woman ain't nothing but one long fight with men." ( )

This is actually the first thing I've read by Baldwin which I haven't fallen in love with---that may have clouded my final reaction, I have to admit, since I always have high expectations when I open a book with Baldwin's name on it. Here, I think I was most frustrated by the story---I was engaged and interested in the story, but I missed the interiority that usually comes with Baldwin's works. His simple language, that works so elegantly in novels and in essays, just wasn't enough to tell a full story here. Simply, I wanted more, and in the first act particularly I got tired with what nearly seemed repetitive. For readers interested in Baldwin's working with religion, this is absolutely a must read, and it works additionally with his oft-returned-to theme of struggling or rebelling musicians, but otherwise, I'm afraid it may be a disappointment to readers familiar with Baldwin's work. As an aside, though, I do think this has the potential to be absolutely magnificent on stage---I'm just not sure that it doesn't need a talented cast to make it shine otherwise. ( )