Season Select: Nat Turner in Jerusalem

Nat Turner in Jerusalem

By Nathan Alan Davis
Directed by Tyrone Phillips

FAST FACTS:
Playing: Touchstone Theatre | October 17 – November 10
Featuring: Gavin Lawrence and Jim DeVita
Genre: Contemporary Drama
Last Seen at APT: First time (on stage)
Go If You Liked: Nat Turner in Jerusalem (Virtual - 2020), The Royale (2023), August Wilson's Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2024)

About Nat Turner in Jerusalem

When everything has been ripped away – family, autonomy, dignity – all that’s left is faith and free will. And if a chance arises to take those things back? No weapon would be off limits. Nat Turner’s life hangs in the balance, anchored on one side by his actions, and on the other, the atrocities committed against an entire race. There is much to be pondered in that space. About humanity and justice. About how to honor a life wrongfully taken. But who writes that story? And whose truth is ultimately put to paper? Join us for a lyrical meditation on the confluence of righteous violence, freedom and belief, shining light on a forgotten figure who was instrumental in the fight to end slavery in America. Helmed by the director who brought you last season's sensation The Royale.

About Nat Turner in Real Life

Thomas R. Gray’s The Confessions of Nat Turner: An Authentic Account of the Whole Insurrection is the document that made this play possible (and you can read the full text on Gutenberg.org). This document, which was published just weeks after Turner’s execution, has been much dissected over the decades. After all, putting an incarcerated Black man’s story in the hands of a white southern lawyer opens it up for questions about point of view, authenticity and accuracy (though some scholars have recently claimed that they have “…become increasingly confident that Gray transcribed Turner’s confession, with, as Gray claimed, ‘little or no variation.’” On the other hand, while Gray represented a number of people who escaped slavery, he was (and still is) deemed to have been a slavery apologist.

Nat Turner himself was a fascinating figure. Born to an enslaved family in the fall of 1800, Turner learned to read and write as a child, and spent much of his free time studying the Bible. He was devoutly religious, and some who knew him believed even at a young age that he would grow up to become a prophet, as he seemed to be able to describe events that happened before he was born.

As an adult, Turner continued to receive visions. Once, he even escaped, but returned after hiding for a month, having received what he believed was a sign from God telling him to do so. His visions contained signs pointing to future events, including a vision of a bloody battle between enslaved Africans and their white captors. He read “prodigies or unusual natural phenomena – as indirect messages from God.” Leading up to the uprising, Turner received many such messages. One, an eclipse, which would have indicated the hour for the uprising, except that Turner became ill and postponed. Next, a rare weather event turned the sun green. This was deemed the final signal from God, and the uprising went forward, continuing for two days. In the end, around 55 white people were dead, and over the coming months, hundreds of Black people were murdered in retaliation, many of whom were not involved. Of the rebels, 30 were arrested, 19 of whom were convicted, including Nat Turner. The rest of the people arrested as insurrectionists agreed to be exiled to Liberia.

While Turner was in jail awaiting his execution, he received a series of visits from the attorney Thomas R. Gray, resulting, as mentioned above, in Gray’s document and eventually in Nat Turner in Jerusalem. In his director’s note for this play, Tyrone Phillips said, “By gathering in this theater today, you bear witness to Nat Turner’s legacy. You experience the emotional cycles of incarceration that any human would feel as they faced their mortality. This production is not just a historical account but a reflection on profound themes of power, fear, freedom, faith, and sacrifice. You may encounter images, questions, or arguments that challenge your comfort zone, but I urge you to engage deeply with the work.”

Artistic Director Brenda DeVita says:

Nathan Alan Davis is a wonderful, poetic playwright. And we are thrilled to bring this meditation on faith and race and responsibility to the Touchstone this fall. He writes beautifully about some very ugly historical events - the fallout that is rendered is utterly devastating. What happens when one’s autonomy and family and hope is violently taken from them?

Gavin Lawrence and Jim DeVita are playing Nat Turner and Thomas Gray, respectively. These two actors on stage together is an electric experience. They are incredibly diligent about authenticity and committed to language - faithful to the playwright and his words. And when you put them head to head, facing off in these horrific and complex stories, they make it very easy to see truths and shed light on the intricacies and the humanity of these people.

We produced a virtual performance of this play during the pandemic, and even on that platform, the poetry and the insightful illumination of this truly impactful, and often forgotten, historical event…it was just revelatory. And it’s going to be even more powerful in front of a live audience. It’s just a brilliant ending to our 45th season.