Penumbra's 'Thurgood' does Marshall plenty of justice

Longtime Penumbra Theatre actor Lester Purry puts on a demonstration of how one can fill a large stage with grace, wit and majesty.

Endowed with charisma and craft, Purry is totally commanding in the one-man show "Thurgood," which opened Thursday in St. Paul. He seamlessly transitions from youth to wizened elder.

This is not the first time the play by George Stevens Jr. has been produced in the Twin Cities. James Craven essayed the role in 2015 at Illusion Theater.

Where this production stands out is in its conception. Director Lou Bellamy, who staged this show with Perry at the Geva Theatre in Rochester, N.Y., in 2018, has framed the play not simply as a stage biography of Thurgood Marshall, who rose from segregation and denigration to become a great American jurist.

By having the action play out against the backdrop of the Constitution, we see his life as an emblem of the promise of America and Marshall's story as a mosaic of a people. Rasean Davonté Johnson designed the projections, which flow onto Vicki Smith's simple set.

The action is set in an auditorium at Howard University, where Marshall went to law school. We, the audience, are students listening to him come back to share life lessons. In "Thurgood," he tells us his origins story. We learn of the creative names that seemed to predestine family members, including a relative with the first name of Fearless.

He shares information about his father, who had a habit of going to the courthouse and then coming home and having legal arguments. Bit by bit, we see his journey to law, and to teachers, including Charles Hamilton Houston, the dean of Howard Law School. All this background leads to the passion that drives him to become the first Black Supreme Court justice.

To the contrary, as he winks and smirks, it's clear that there's a lot of joy there, mischievousness and light, too.

For this is a story about victory. His smiles because he has redeemed his suffering. Despite all the assaults against his humanity because he was born Black, he rises indomitably with dignity and, ultimately, with a love of people and country.

Stage biographies of this type — up from slavery, segregation or the ghetto — can be tricky. Too often they are presented like encyclopedia entries, falling into the trap of being more ethnographic or sociological than artistic. There's a wonder: Given all that has been arrayed against this subject, how did he or she rise above it all.

And such stories, if not told well, can leave us with disturbed, unsettled spirits. After all, who wants to hear of pioneering firsts if it's less about the blazing triumph than a wallow in suffering?

What lifts "Thurgood" into the realm of sublime art is the same thing that musicians from Billie Holiday to Lauryn Hill do: It's the transmutation of grief and anguish into ethereal beauty.

Heck, "Thurgood" is supposed to be a throwback about history — a song of yesterday. But the show hits so many contemporary notes, it sounds like something being sung today. And it is something everyone needs to hear. So, gather round to watch and hear Purry in his domain. It's well worth the trip.