"The Whipping Man"

June 27, 2017 — It's April of 1865 and the Civil War has ended. The play begins as Caleb (Will
Howard), a Confederate soldier, severely wounded, tumbles through the door of his old Virginia mansion, barely able to walk. At the sound of his noisy arrival, Simon (Taurean Blacque), a former slave, comes out of another room bearing a rifle. Recognizing Caleb immediately, he lowers the rifle. Thus begins "The Whipping Man" by Matthew Lopez, directed for the Peterborough Players by Howard Millman, in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

As the play progresses in Charles Morgan's excellent set, a ruined southern mansion, stripped of most of the family's possessions, with tall windows, torn drapes, a chandelier on the floor and other signs of ravage and neglect, we learn Caleb and his family are Jewish. This is not just a plot device by the author. As many as 10,000 Jews may have fought in the Civil War on both sides.

A little later, John (Robb Douglas), another former slave, appears. Unlike the somber, sympathetic Simon, John is loud, irreverent, and a heavy drinker. Simon declares Caleb's badly wounded leg will have to be amputated to save his life. When Caleb refuses to go to a hospital, Simon decides he and John will have to perform the surgery. This leads to one of the most harrowing and gut-wrenching scenes in the play.

In Act II, Caleb's leg has been amputated and he's bed-ridden. Simon and John, who have adopted their masters' Jewish faith, prepare a Seder meal in observance of Passover. All three participate, Caleb reluctantly at first, claiming he lost his faith at Petersburg, one of the final and fiercest battles of the conflict.

Missing from the house are two other former slaves, Elizabeth and Sarah, their whereabouts unaccounted for. With Simon out of the room, we learn from John a terrible secret, unknown to Simon. Caleb insists they must tell him, even though it will break his heart, but John, in a rare moment of compassion, is reluctant to do so.

The whipping man of the title refers to the policy of wealthy southern families to send their misbehaving slaves to services that provided whipping for a price, thereby keeping their own hands clean from this brutal practice. John had been a victim of many such whippings, one of them ending in an act of violence by John that could have serious consequences for him.

This was a beautifully-acted play, particularly by Taurean Blacque, about the evils of slavery, the devastation of war and personal loss. The sparse audience for this Tuesday afternoon performance was obviously pleased.