By SHARON EBERSON
Knowing the destiny of the unwilling participants in the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment doesn’t ease the heartbreak stirred by the men of Feed the Beast. Writer, director and costar Layon Gray has the uncanny ability to create characters so lively and likable, that knowing where they are headed makes their fate seem that much poignant, and that much worse.
The story that spans 40 years is inspired by true events, starting in 1932, in a study by the United States Public Health Service, at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. As seen through the lens of an all African-American cast, five unsuspecting participants among the 399 men who went untreated for the venereal disease are given placebos as they suffered and unknowingly spread the disease to loved ones.
They are the patients of a young Black doctor who at first believes this is a six-month experiment, but as the years go by, and he watches his trusting patients suffer, he questions his life’s work and his culpability in the shameful deception.
Penicillin as a cure for syphilis was discovered in the 1940s, yet the experiment went on until 1972.
As the fictional Dr. Phillip John, Milton Lyles II carries the weight of guilt as the heavy load it is – a Black doctor betraying the men who have become like family to him. We watch him age from a cocky fresh-out-of-med-school idealist to a desperate man, questioning not only the experiment’s premise, but his own moral and ethical obligations.
One of the strengths of the ensemble is the believability of the passage of years, aided by a sprinkling of white in a beard here and there, but mostly in watching the actors pained expressions and who their bodies give out. That they don’t give in to despair, and continue to trust Dr. John over the decades he draws and studies their “bad blood,” makes their stories all the more tragic.
Pittsburgh is the only stop for Feed the Beast on the first leg of a Layon Gray’s 2025 tour, and continues a long association with New Horizon Theater bringing his company’s productions to our city.
The intimacy of Herb Newsome’s hospital-room set and the setting, the O’Reilly Theater’s third-floor Helen Wayne Rauh Rehearsal Hall, brings you up close to young Pee Wee (Jamar Arthur), who dotes on his pet rooster; to Deacon, an eloquent minister with an eye for the ladies (Dontonio Demarco); to Clarence (Layon Gray), a would-be actor saving for his Hollywood dream; to easily teased but true-blue Benny (Reggie Wilson); and to proud potato farmer Zeke (David Roberts).
(Images: Courtesy of New Horizon Theater)
Zeke wears an excruciatingly pained expression as he is subjected to injections in his lower back, while you can almost feel the ache of Benny’s swollen, rash-covered foot. The suffering is most notable in how the men carry themselves, and all the more horrific knowing that they are purposely going untreated.
Proud janitor and eager assistant to the doctor, Ellis (Thaddeus Daniels), is at times the moral compass for the doctor, until he realizes that he has abetted in the betrayal of his friends. A twist in their relationship that is hinted seems like piling on, but it does speak to Ellis’ motivations.
In direct address to the audience, Lyles reads Dr. John’s letters to his mother as they grow more and more weary and alarming of what he is doing, in the name of following orders.
Feed the Beast, subtitled The Tuskegee Experiment on the Negro Male, crosses over in time with other Gray plays, notably Black Angels Over Tuskegee that was presented in the same space by New Horizon Theater last year.
As he does in many of his works, Gray weaves in notable moments in American history, such as Rosa Parks bus sit-down, the JFK assassination and the switch from the use of “Negro,” because of its association with slavery, to “Black.”
When this is pointed out to Dr. John, it is noted that time has passed him by in his cocoon of the hospital and ongoing experiment.
There is much license taken with history in this story. The real-life whistleblower on the experiment was a Public Health Service social worker named Peter Buxton. There were no prosecutions of doctors as suggested in the play, and no official apologies were issued to families and victims till 1997. Congressional hearings were held in 1973 that resulted in the National Research Act that provides protections for subjects of studies, and a class-action lawsuit filed by the NAACP resulted in a $10 million settlement for the participants and their families.
Those are facts that are unsaid. What Feed the Beast zeroes in on is the chilling betrayal of innocent Black men and families by their government, including a Black doctor who was a long-time defender of the experiment. The play premiered in summer 2024, notably post-pandemic, at the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C. Gray has said his play is not just of its time, but that it sheds light on the distrust of Black citizens when the COVID vaccine was introduced.
at the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C.
At two hours with an intermission, there were several points where Feed the Beast might have ended, and on opening night Thursday, people stood up for an ovation and started to leave while Lyle’s’ Dr. John still had lines left to his closing monologue.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Pittsburgh Public Theater presents New Horizon Theater and Layon Gray’s Feed the Beast at the Helen Wayne Rauh Rehearsal Hall, the O’Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., third floor, Downtown. The play runs through February 24, 2025. Tickets: https://www.onthestage.tickets/show/new-horizon-theater/676512cdb5d9ae1654ce4f49/
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Company, Our Posts, Reviews
Leave a Reply Cancel reply