Correction (Feb. 15 3:00 a.m.): Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the cast member playing each role. David Hutcheson plays White, and Anthony McClenny plays Black. The story has been changed to reflect the correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
Arts Verdict: 4 of 5 Stars
Moving with snap, crackle and pop efficiency, the Department of Dramatic Art and LAB! Theatre’s production of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Sunset Limited” is a psychological thriller propelled by unavoidable engagement.
The show, a directing debut for junior Jeb Brinkley, is filled with dialogue and heavy content including race, politics and theology.
A conversation between two characters: White, played by junior David Hutcheson, and Black, played by sophomore Anthony McClenny, paints a somber but quirky portrait of despair in men who are polar opposites.
Prefacing any action, Black miraculously catches White mid-suicidal leap in front of the subway car, The Sunset Limited.
The entirety of the play is contained in a tenement apartment. Famous blues guitarist Robert Johnson’s hell-won picking is heard over the grungy kitchen.
Even though the characters’ names, Black and White, are tied to their races, neither actor succumbs to caricature.
Despite their contrasting images, Black, looking like a tattooed Cornel West in worker boots, and White, dressed in a red jogging suit, throw lines back and forth with metronomic control.
Black and White’s on-point banter produces a connection and charming dynamic that captures the audience’s empathy.
With minimal staged resources, the tools of pacing and blocking keep the audience engaged.
White, with jittered steps, paces and leans around the stage and rushes to the door to leave and kill himself. But Black, with the easy swagger of a past-his-prime basketball star, always lures White back with his intense theological arguments and kindness.
The play is at its best when the lights illuminating the stage’s backdrop make a dramatic turn from blue, to red, then orange. Conjuring images of flames, the orange light basking White’s red costume creates an inspiring spectacle as White delivers a monologue in which his cynical academic shield is thrown aside and his inner strife is revealed.
“Sunset Limited” is a gutsy presentation of two men’s fears, tribulations and direly contrasting hopes. Audience members gasp in the hope that Black, using every trick in his bag, will ultimately save White from personal derailment.
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
