About the Show

The Acting Company presents this adaptation of Richard Wright's classic novel about the struggles of a black man in 1930s Chicago. Performed in rotating repertory with "Measure for Measure."

From the show:

In the South Side Chicago of the 1930s, Bigger Thomas struggles to create a place for himself in a world whose prejudice has left him with few opportunities. After taking a job in a wealthy white man's house, he unwittingly unleashes a series of events that violently and irrevocably seal his fate. Manifesting Bigger's double consciousness through the character of the Black Rat, Kelley reclaims Richard Wright's groundbreaking story for a twenty-first century audience.

Critic Reviews (8)

"A Big Story Made Smaller: This fluid and nonlinear adaptation of Richard Wright’s novel is brisk, but its theatrics upstage its implications."
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"Fighting the Power in 'Native Son' and 'Measure for Measure.' The Acting Company pairs Richard Wright and William Shakespeare to wake us up to injustice."
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"Richard Wright and William Shakespeare are justly praised for their depth and breadth of thought; I wish that in the zeal to focus them on single concepts, these productions didn't reduce their works as much as they do."
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"Told in a fragmentary form often with flashbacks within flashbacks, it is only possible to put the chronology together if one knows the novel. Kelley has also eliminated the powerful speech to the jury by Bigger's lawyer which is one the most famous of all statements on social racism."
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"You don't need the signposts to find harrowing contemporary relevance in the story of a black New Yorker, Bigger Thomas…Bigger is given seething, sorrowful life by Galen Ryan Kane…by mixing and matching the novel's timelines and interspersing scenes, Kelley draws out some provoking parallels."
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"Astounding production of Native Son, in which playwright Nambi E. Kelley's adaptation of the characters, plot and devastating themes of the novel dispel any thought of Wright's complex excoriation of racism in America."
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"This bleak portrait of institutional and societal racism and its effects on an African-American 20-year-old man remains all-too-shockingly relevant today; indeed, you wouldn't be surprised to hear the story of Bigger Thomas on any nightly newscast."
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“The action moves at a breathless pace as the play hurtles to its foregone conclusion. The production also benefits from exceptional performances. Native Son first appeared more than two decades before the advent of Civil Rights legislation. [T]he current adaptation demonstrates that the work is as relevant today as it was nearly 80 years ago.”
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Cast and creative team