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Keith Glover's "Coming of the Hurricane" may start a little slow, but give it time. There's a slow but steady build of character, plot, and complications, until its second act hits the Karamu stage with gale force. The play's ripping climax -- a no-holds-barred prize fight under lightning strobes -- is one of the most exciting theatrical moments I can remember in years.
Ostensibly, the title's "Hurricane" is the white prize-fighter touring the South during Reconstruction, playing exhibition matches against black ex-slaves to demonstrate white supremacy. But there's more than one gathering storm in Glover's excellent drama, especially as it blows through the lives of Crixus, a middle-aged ex-slave, and his family and associates.
Freddie A. Cox begins as a stiff and glowering Crixus -- so emotionally shut down that his pregnant young wife Kazarah (Cassandra Renee McCree) is considering leaving him if he doesn't get his act together. She is being wooed by Cayman (a charming Devon Settles), a handsome, dandyish West Indian boxer who is as smoothly attentive as Crixus is preoccupied and brusque. Crixus' best friend and former trainer Shadow Jack (the marvelous Charles Douglas Robinson) tries his best to mediate between the couple. He knows all the bloody secrets of Crixus' dark past as a "cutter": a legendary gladiator-slave who has survived too many matches fought to the death.
With a persistent little jiggle in his step, Robinson's warm, comic scolding provides much of the play's interest during the early set-up. But as the play unfolds, Cox and McCree slowly develop a quiet chemistry, especially in a touching second act scene where she maps the scars on his face.
The plot begins to cook when Hurricane's arrival is delayed, and the slick promoter Bigelow (Butch Terry) engineers a get-rich-quick scheme: a warm-up match between Cayman and Crixus where, unknown to Crixus, the young fighter will take a dive. The money they'll make will allow Crixus and Shadow Jack to buy the store they work in from their white employer Stolkes (excellently played by Jerry Zellers) -- a decision with many unforeseen consequences.
Playwright Glover cannily knows how to raise the stakes. He saves Hurricane's entrance until the second act, and James C. Workman's charismatic appearance provides a galvanizing shot of energy. With a lantern jaw and beetle-brows, Workman looks every inch the pugilist; when he strips to his tights and we see his rippling muscles, he seems unstoppable. A classic scene where the two fighters scope each other out over a shared flask of whiskey is beautifully written and well-played.
Director Douglas Jewell gets good performances from his cast. However, the staging of much of the first act is awkward -- too much of the time the actors seem trapped upstage on Richard Morris Jr.'s unwieldy store set.
In the second act, the play opens up, and with the aid of fight director Butch Terry and stunning light and sound effects by designers Morris and Corby Grubb, Jewell makes magic. The fight at the play's climax is simply thrilling -- impeccably paced, and gorgeously staged. It's well worth the wait.