Review: Charlotte play is a testament to history not being the final word
Sarah Ridge Polson (Billie D. Merritt) paces in front of the audience and gives her speech to the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the Cherokee Nation’s sovereignty and jurisdiction. As she lays out her points, her ancestors stand behind her as ghosts of monumental decisions that came before her.
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The play is haunted.
Haunted by the past, by the expectations in the present and by the future that already feels paved. This sequence is one of the effective moments of “Sovereignty,” the final play of Three Bone Theatre’s 14th season. The ghosts in the room are powerful.
Written by Mary Kathyrn Nagle and directed by Carolyn Dunn, “Sovereignty” may be the most radical play of a theater troupe known for its radical swings. Standing at two hours and 30 minutes, along with a 15-minute intermission, the narrative plants you in the middle of a world of ironies.
Polson is the ancestor of John Ridge (Lance Claymore) and Major Ridge (Marco Fuller); members of the Cherokee Nation who in 1835, signed the treaty that led to the Trail of Tears and the expulsion of the Cherokee out of southern Appalachia.
But that story isn’t as black and white as you’d think.
The lead-up to that decision was fraught and not taken lightly. A disengaged President Andrew Jackson (Kyle Riggs) and the white nationalist aggression of Georgia Gov. John Forsyth (Ryan Dunn) pushed the Cherokee Nation to the brink, forcing them to make an unthinkable choice: stand their ground and defend their land that was eroding beneath their feet or sign the treaty and move to Oklahoma, away from what they hold sacred.
In the present day, Sarah Ridge Polson returns home to try and change the narrative. Her brother Watie (Josh Orsi) still lives at home while her father, Rodger Ridge Polson (also Fuller), has turned his back on the community. After years in the wilderness of New York City, she wants to make change for her people.
She meets a guy, Ben (also Riggs), and gets a job with the Attorney General’s office working for Jim Ross (Mvnte July). That’s significant because Ross is a descendant of John Ross (also July), the famed leader of the Cherokee Nation in 1835 who vehemently was against the Ridges’ position to leave their homeland.
Jim spits when Sarah makes mention of the Ridge family. She keeps her heritage from him.
July is one of the excellent performers in “Sovereignty.” Equally jubilant and terrifying, his size brings both John and Jim Ross to this mythic quality. His turn against the Ridges makes him staggering and scary. He’s flanked by Claymore and Fuller as John and Major Ridge, who both infuse a deep reverence for their characters in both of their performances.
John Ridge is young, but not foolish or brash. The audience slowly comes to see what Sarah sees in him and why she carries such a devotion for what he stood for.
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“Sovereignty” is open to challenging the norms set in front of it (the U.S. government’s role in the removal of the Cherokee, white nationalism and views of interracial couplings) but it never seems to broaden its lens.
It’s made mention that the Ridge family owned enslaved people. This is not an attempt to both sides of the narrative, but engaging with the deep complexities of people would’ve opened up the narrative even more.
Too many times, it feels like “Sovereignty” is telling us its thesis rather than allowing these talented actors to show us. The scene that I mentioned earlier is one of many where a scene with Sarah plays out with her ancestors watching on. The stature of the performances from Claymore, July and Fuller bring weight to these moments over a character, generally Sarah, voicing the thesis to us again.
The power of Three Bone’s set-up is allowing us to become engulfed in the narrative and too many times, the play didn’t allow for that.
That’s not to take away the full effect of the narrative. It’s a reminder of the complexities of history and how we never take the lessons we’ve learned from the past.
The Ridges were as much victims as Ross and the Cherokee that moved were, both were ramshackled by white nationalistic policies and indifference from the government. What this story tells us is that there’s always room to come back together and reject the narrative of the past if it doesn’t lead to a more united future.
That’s where “Sovereignty” succeeds, and makes it a standing ovation for Three Bone Theatre.
“Sovereignty”
Three Bone Theatre, 1545 W. Trade St.
Thursday-Sunday, Aug. 27-Sept. 6; Thursday-Saturday shows at 7:30 p.m., Sunday shows at 2 p.m.
Buy tickets here.
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