Credit When Stars Align with being unafraid to dramatize a huge chunk of 19th century American history, specifically the country’s involvement in the slave trade. The racism that permeated not just the ante-bellum south but much of the rest of the country still exists today, as we know from Ferguson and Brooklyn. Slavery may be dead, but prejudice and hostility towards blacks still live in the hearts of many Americans—which is what gives a play like When Stars Alignits relevance.
The story takes place in Moss Grove, a plantation north of Baton Rouge, just before the outbreak of the Civil War. J R Bruce’s ingenious set, a large, curving wooden platform, serves many different purposes: in one scene it becomes the plantation’s porch, in another a slave-auction block, then the ramparts of a battlefield. Director (and co-writer) John Henry Davis takes advantage of the set in numerous ways: first by having his 14-person cast sit on stage for much of the time, thereby enabling the narrative to break free of a strictly naturalistic framework. Then he employs a four-piece band to spice the action with period songs and tunes; the musicians also speak directly to the audience from time to time, providing snippets of historical information.
With much of the cast playing multiple parts, Michael Mullen must have been hard-pressed to meet costume demands: Veryle Rupp, for example, not only had to take on the role of Jedidiah, the slave-owning patriarch of Moss Grove, but that of a Frenchman and a preacher. Fortunately, Mullen had the budget and the skill to enable Rupp to make all those transformations possible and believable. To go with its lavish production values, Stars tells a large, sprawling story. Kosoff first wrote it as a novel, part of a trilogy, which no doubt accounts for its occasional unwieldiness as a play. The time span includes three decades; it makes for many rapid-fire scenes and sketchily-written minor characters. Fortunately, though, the key relationship, the love story between Amy (Haley McHugh) and Thaddeus (Jason Woods), is explored in a deep, three-dimensional way by Kosoff and Davis (who was instrumental in turning book into play). Amy, daughter of Jedidiah (who is portrayed as a “good” slaveowner, one who tries to treat his cotton-picking chattel humanely), grows up alongside of Thaddeus, the offspring of a slave girl who was raped by Jedidiah’s wastrel, racist son Henry (Nick Ballard). That makes Thaddeus part-white, of course, but that doesn’t mean he will ever be able to marry Amy—not in the deep South, anyway. Still, he and Amy defy the racial restrictions as best they can, meeting secretly from time to time, confiding in each other, giving voice to their hopes and dreams. History catches these two would-be lovers up in its ferocious grasp. The Civil War breaks out; Thaddeus and some of the other slaves go off to fight on the side of the Union Army. Henry, of course, pledges allegiance to the Confederacy and loses an arm in battle. The Union triumphs; the slaves are freed, but when the Union troops who had been stationed throughout the south to protect against discrimination were tragically withdrawn in 1876, ten years of racial equality and democracy were subverted and destroyed. The White Camelias, forerunners of the KKK, filled the void and saw to it that blacks were once again deprived of their civil rights. All of that, and much more, is dramatized in When Stars Align, most of the time effectively. The Amy-Thaddeus story continues to run its course, reaching a generational conclusion that is both hopeful and life-affirming.
The people behind this play, and especially the actors who bring it to life, deserve the highest praise possible.
