APT Examines the Life of Langston Hughes

“Most people in America, when they talk about race, they have absolutely no context.”

This observation was made by playwright Carlyle Brown during the talkback portion of American Players Theatre’s most recent Out of the Woods series of live staged readings, after the performance of his play Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been…. The quote is striking because the piece — focusing on the writing, philosophy, politics and public life of poet Langston Hughes — is all about context.

Available to view for free, on-demand at pbswisconsin.org through July 26, it centers on the impossibility of separating an artist and his work from his lived experiences, and the stark truth that moments of rage and calls for revolution are not the product of moments of injustice. They are the result of a much larger context; a lifetime of oppression.

Under the straightforward direction of APT Core Company Member David Daniel and aided visually by graphic screens that illustrate Hughes’s poetry, Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been… is a unique look at the conditions that shaped the extraordinary voice of one of the foremost writers of the Harlem Renaissance. In particular, it focuses on Langston Hughes’s creative process, his struggles for acceptance and understanding by Black and white readers, and notably, his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Led by Wisconsin’s own senator Joseph McCarthy, HUAC was purportedly rooting out communists as a threat to the nation’s safety in the 1950s. But of course its real aim was to silence writers, artists, and activists who criticized an America that was rife with racial and social inequality.

The first half of the play is an extended monologue by Hughes, played exquisitely by APT Core Company member Gavin Lawrence. A perfect vehicle for a Zoom performance, the play focuses only on the poet, giving him the opportunity to talk directly to the audience — his “readers” — about his frustration at being misinterpreted and misunderstood; his relationship with other writers and critics; and the sense that his popularity was fleeting. Lawrence is particularly engaging when sharing Hughes’s poems, “The Weary Blues,” “Harlem,” and “Harlem Sweeties,” as if they are passing through his body from a higher plane, bursting out in celebration of his community.

Although all of the APT performers in this reading series have turned in solid performances under less than ideal circumstances, Lawrence soars here. It is easy to see that the actor has actually played this part before. He inhabits the character of Hughes completely; his speech tailored to the writer; his ear tuned to lines of poetry that seem to come to him in the air; his pragmatism and intellect fully on display during questioning in Washington D.C.

During Hughes’s stream-of-consciousness monologue in the first half, the script bounces from unflattering reviews and poetry recitation, to waxing philosophical about his place in the canon and worrying about his summons to testify in front of HUAC. It feels like a playwright’s journey through the brain of a writer he admires, inspired by both poetry and jazz.

In great contrast, the second half of the play puts Hughes on the witness stand, surrounded by the infamous figures of Senator McCarthy (Brian Mani) and Roy Cohn (Jim Ridge). Along with other white interrogators (James DeVita and Marcus Truschinski), they are determined to accuse, undermine, and badger Hughes into admitting that his writing is subversive and he is part of a communist plot to weaken the United States government. Using text from the actual transcripts of the event, the play becomes a contentious, repetitive hearing, with congressmen parsing phrases and twisting meanings of Hughes’s writing — willfully ignoring the artistry and nuance contained in the verses. But in response to the relentless, condescending attacks, Hughes insists on considering his work in a broader context. This is the vital through-line that holds the two halves of the play together — that and the almost mystical creativity that drives Hughes to write.

While the script sometimes meanders and the entire supporting cast is given precious little to do, the play succeeds in opening a door to more listening, more conversation, and more learning. Several cast members commented in the talkback that the experience prompted them to ask difficult questions, do additional research on Hughes and his work, and simply make space for a story that is not about them. And as Brown commented, “It’s not a story about victims. It’s a story about heroism, imagination, ingenuity, resilience and persistence.”