Sally & Tom runs through May 26 at The Public Theater.
By Elazar Abrahams
Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks continues her residency at the Public with the new play “Sally & Tom,” which presents a complex and ambitious look at the relationship between founding father Thomas Jefferson and his slave companion Sally Hemings. The work grapples with the nuances of the infamous couple, which, in truth, we know very little proven factual information about. The audience’s lens into the unsavory lovers is actually through a play within the play, as Sally & Tom follows a troupe of actors putting on a show titled “The Pursuit of Happiness.”
Led by the team of Mike and Lucy, the fictional play is kitschy and every bit as cliche as American history can get, but it’s through this device that they, an interracial couple, begin to clash over the dynamics of the characters they portray at work – Jefferson and Hemings. Sprinkle some arguments about art and appealing to a broader audience to appease investors, plus an old flame from each of their lives coming back on the scene, and Parks has whipped two acts full of compelling domestic drama.
Sheira Irving is great as Lucy (and Lucy playing Sally), but it’s Gabriel Ebert as Mike (and Mike playing Tom, get it yet?) that really captivates the crowd. He towers over the rest of the cast, and is at moment meek and a bit pathetic, then seamlessly terrifying and stoic in a killer monologue that brings the show into intermission. The two are supported by a fantastic ensemble, especially Alano Miller as Kwame, another actor in the show playing James Hemings, brother to Sally.
The show’s conceit is clever and never too complex to follow, a testament to both Parks’ writing and Steve H. Broadnax III’s direction. I haven’t connected with all of Parks’ previous work, particularly her Pulitzer-winning play “Topdog/Underdog,” but this new work made me understand the appeal. She is an expert at exploring issues related to race in America without answering the questions posed—she merely asks them. Her sharp dialogue and meaty monologues are on point here.
The show’s scope is also its undoing, because running at over two and a half hours, it begins to lose focus and does not give enough weight to either the domestic issues of the actors or the characters they play for so much of the script. Perhaps the unresolved stories are part of the point, and you will certainly leave the theater pondering it all for quite a while.
Simply, Tom & Sally is very good. I didn’t connect with it on a sublime level but the script is a nail-biting blend of drama and comedy that works both for those who wish to dwell on the themes, and works just as well for those who just want to watch a fun little story. It is a rare feat to be able to tow that line.
Find more information and tickets HERE.
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