Native Son Adapted For South Side Stage

Chicago’s South Side, in the 1930s, was where all the black residents lived. Their legal segregation prevented opportunities afforded white citizens, opportunities in education, employment, housing, health care, police protection—what we now understand to be basic human rights. Chicago’s South Side, today, is where many black residents live. Their schools have been shuttered, their citizens tasered and shot by police, their parks and libraries underfunded, their housing often haphazardly managed.

The problems are of course more nuanced than 80 years ago. Progress has surely been made since the Jim Crow era. But similarities exist.

Court Theatre’s adaptation of Richard Wright’s Native Son, premiering tonight and running through Oct. 12, brings Bigger Thomas to the stage. The theater, set just north of Bigger’s fictional rattrap apartment, is the domain of the University of Chicago, a mixed neighborhood of professors and students, blacks and whites and Asians, rich and poor. But roam beyond the perimeters of the modern integrated neighborhood and things begin to turn more pre-Civil Rights eraish.

“All of the issues and pressures that Wright wrote about are still very relevant and prevalent in our society,” says playwright Nambi E. Kelley. “My adaptation focuses on how Bigger is impacted from the inside out, about these pressures and how those ills inform the picture he sees of himself in his own mind.”

Court Theatre, in recent years, has fought to make itself into a center for diverse, classic theater, with an emphasis on literary masterpieces. Court’s winter 2012 production of Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man was a huge success, garnering praise and enthusiasm throughout the community. 

So when American Blues Theater approached Court to propose a partnership, there was no hesitation. “It was the perfect coming together of everything,” says Court marketing director Kate Vangeloff.

Nambi began the process of adapting the novel in the fall of 2012, completing a 450-page draft that she eventually whittled down to 85. She agonized over the sprawling story’s essential elements, and how to remain true to her artistic voice while maintaining the integrity of Wright’s original vision.

“It has been my favorite novel from a very young age,” says Nambi.  “Wright writes great dialogue.  His dialogue translates very easily to the stage because it has high stakes, is direct, and is full of character.  What was challenging to translate was the long stretches in the novel where Bigger is in conversation with himself about his choices.  I hope I've found a way to illuminate his internal struggles that is theatrical, engaging, and true to the original work.”

In the novel Native Son, why Bigger did what he did is as important as what he did. The novel’s examination of Bigger’s character makeup, and how the white dominated social structure informed it, posed important questions at a time when such questions were rarely spoken aloud.

Nambi’s narration, likewise, focuses on Bigger’s psychological underpinnings, but with much more emphasis on the novel’s first two acts rather than the final act that largely takes place in a courtroom. The play runs about an hour and a half, a remarkable distillation of a story of such enormity.

At a recent discussion at the Arts Club of Chicago, Nambi discussed growing up near the Ida B. Wells 

Professor Kenneth Warren and playwright Nambi E. Kelly
discuss the adaption at the Arts Club of Chicago. 

housing project and also in Englewood. It shaped her young life and her perspective as she adapted the play. Nambi was just eight years old when she first picked up a copy of Wright’s novel, and her emotional reaction caused her parents to determine that the subject matter was too mature. Nambi did return to the novel for nearly a decade, but when she did so Native Son took hold of her all over again.

Kenneth Warren joined Nambi for that Arts Club discussion. Ken, a literary historian who has taught at the University of Chicago these past 23 years, warned that readers process text differently at the time of publication than in later years. He also noted that civic rights reform was then inextricably linked to the Socialist movement. But he agreed that much of Wright’s story remains current.

Wright was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class in 2010. 

Advance ticket sales for the run have been brisk, but some still remain. Groups of 10+ enjoy 30 percent off tickets, waived handling fees, free parking, and discounts at local restaurants. Contact groups@courttheatre.org or call (773) 834-3243 to make a reservation.

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Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and short story collection An Off-White Christmas, as well as the editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. He is the Chicago editor of the Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the American Writers Museum's Chicago Literary Council and the committee that selects the Harold Washington Literary Award.


donaldgevans@hotmail.com