“The Agitators” at Geva

The Agitators is the name of the smart (and Smart…) new play having its world premiere at Geva, starring Madeleine Lambert and Cedric Mays as Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. I was captivated from the moment Lambert entered, wearing a beautiful dress that seemed to emerge directly from the painted floor boards – both the set and the costumes were understated but extremely effective in supporting the plot. I was only a bit distracted by the fact that Mays' fingering of the violin didn’t attempt to match the notes that were supposed to be coming from the instrument (although his bowing did).

Most Americans know the names Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, and know they had something to do with the abolition of slavery and the right to vote for blacks and women. Rochesterians might know a bit more, since this city claimed them as residents when they were alive, and their bones rest in Mt. Hope Cemetery. Mat Smart’s play brings these historical figures to life with dialog that is extremely believable, and reminds us not only how difficult and recent the struggle for the rights of blacks and women was, but also that the struggle hasn’t ended. This is not a quaint historical drama. The characters died over 100 years ago, but the issues they fought for still resonate in the 21^st century. Blacks and women may have gained the right to vote, but they didn’t gain equal footing with white men then, and they still haven’t today.

The two arches creatively inform the
audience of time and place

Near the end of the play, when Anthony and Douglass are arguing about sacrificing one group of people in order to advance their causes (in the case of Douglass, he sacrificed women, to focus on the rights of blacks to vote; in the case of Anthony, she sacrificed black women, to focus on the rights of all women to vote), they each ask, reproachfully, “Will you ever know what it’s like to be me?” Even if the playwright put these words in their mouths, they are powerful. Can any person ever know what it’s like to be someone else? Can a white person know what it’s like to be black? A heterosexual person know what it’s like to be gay, or bi-sexual, or transsexual? A rich person know what it’s like to be poor? A citizen know what it’s like to be an immigrant? A man know what it’s like to be a woman? Yes, you can reverse each of these questions, but the order is relevant, because it’s a question of whether a person of privilege can ever know what it’s like to be someone without it. If you have any ‘without’ characteristics, it is easier to empathize with others without. But if you are solidly ‘with’ – say, a wealthy, straight, American white man – it’s potentially more difficult to empathize with those without. I can imagine that it is especially difficult for these straight white American men to give up the privilege that was conferred simply based on their sex and skin color. No wonder many of these people, who felt threatened by their loss of (unearned) power, voted to “make America great again.”

This is a play about another time, but it is a play for our time. It’s a play about one black man and one white woman fighting for rights Americans now take for granted – the right to vote, the right to own property (instead of to be owned as property), the right to live as free people, equally. And yet it’s also about the continued fight for these exact same rights. The right to vote has been stripped of many citizens in some states (those who have been convicted of a felony, those who haven’t voted in recent elections, those without the proper identification). Women are still treated as property by powerful men who harass and abuse them (from the recent news, the list continues to grow: Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Donald Trump, and let’s not forget Clarence Thomas). There is still so much work to be done. However, as Anthony famously said, “Failure is impossible.”

In the meantime, The Agitators runs until November 12. If there was ever a Geva-created show that deserves to move to NYC and to other theatres around the country, this is it.

https://www.gevatheatre.org