Ensemble’s ‘Alabama Story’ strikes a familiar but formidable chord

Drama, well produced in Cleveland Heights, conjures thoughts of ‘Mockingbird’

Kenneth Jones’ “Alabama Story” may have been a 2014 finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, but the play — on stage at Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland Heights — seems inspired by the works of Harper Lee and Thornton Wilder.

Like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” this play is a social-justice drama that addresses issues of race, class and gender in the American Deep South in the not-so-distant past.

It is based on the true story of how a gentle and agenda-free children’s book about the forest nuptials of two bunnies — one black and the other white — stirs the blind passion of a segregationist Alabama State Senator (Joseph Milan) in Montgomery, the Cradle of the Confederacy, in 1959. His campaign to rid the South of “The Rabbits’ Wedding” crosses swords with graciously defiant librarian Emily Reed (Anne McEvoy) and her protective young assistant (Cody Kilpatrick Steele).

And, as does “Our Town,” the story unfolds metatheatrically and the storytelling is intriguingly romanticized.

Everything on stage is presented in a slightly heightened manner as characters occasionally direct-address the audience, time and place become pliable and a selfaware central character assumes control over the onstage action.

This delightful fellow is Garth Williams (Craig Joseph), the author of the children’s book in question and the artist for “Little House on the Prairie,” “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little.” He also steps into multiple roles throughout the performance — an eager reporter, an antiquated politician, a coffee shop worker — with a playful wink and nod while doing so.

A parallel story about childhood friends — a poor African-American boy (Eugene Sumlin) and an affluent white girl (Adrienne Jones) who reunite in adulthood in Montgomery — is told intermittently throughout the play to show the world that exists outside the marble courthouse and the alabaster library archives.

Director Tyler Whidden does a marvelous job of making all this work in Ensemble Theatre’s Ohio premiere production of this play.

Well aware that the playwright has created characters to serve as conflict-inducing polar opposites of one another, Whidden allows his superb ensemble members to imbue each with a hint of exaggeration without ever losing sight of their intrinsic humanity. Just watch as Milan, as the single-minded Senator Higgins, melts upon receiving the gift of a favorite children’s book from Emily Reed. And watch as McEvoy, as the typically stoic Reed, does the gifting.

Attractive and minimalistic scenic and lighting design by Walter Boswell and Ian Hinz, respectively, effectively isolates key locations while simultaneously embracing the play’s heightened reality. Yet Whidden never shies away from bringing the play downstage and into the audience’s lap for additional dramatic effect.

“Alabama Story” sheds light on a historic event and tells a lovely story about the importance of storytelling. But as we mark the 60th anniversary of the publication of “The Rabbits’ Wedding,” this play also calls attention to the still-existing vestiges of racial tension, the continuing controversy over the Old South’s legacy, and revitalized threats of censorship in this country.

Above all else, it makes 1959 seem like only yesterday.

AIMEE LAMBES Joseph Milan, left, as Senator Higgins, Cody Kilpatrick Steele as Thomas Moore, and Anne McEvoy as Emily Reed, perform in Ensemble Theatre’s “Alabama Story.”