Miscellany: The Caldwell Theatre Company presents "The Whipping Man"

The Caldwell Theatre Company



The Caldwell Theatre Company has been operating in the Boca Raton area for decades, skipping around from location to location like an itinerant vaudeville troupe. It has a permanent home now, just a block away from the dilapidated, abandoned strip mall where it used to reside.

It's easy to pass right by the Caldwell's new home on North Federal Highway. The Count de Hoernle Theatre is, after all, a nondescript cream-colored building with a smallish parking lot. Inside, though, is one of the few surviving theatres in this part of south Florida.

A lot of this is economic; live theatre is a luxury. For the privilege of having breathing human beings perform on stage in front of you, you pay several times what you would at the cineplex. But, speaking as a former drama geek, there's an irresistable draw there, something that dead film stock cannot offer.

The audience's energy energizes the actors. Levity is greeted with appreciative laughs, but in times of high drama, the crowd can be deathly silent. The CDC's stage is an intimate one, with only 300 seats, all of which are close enough to get a good view. The acoustics are good enough to pick up stage whispers and other subtleties.

The Whipping Man

The production I saw at the Caldwell was "The Whipping Man," a play written by Matthew Lopez. It was directed by Clive Cholerton and starred Nick Duckart as Caleb, John Archie as Simon, and Brandon Morris as John.

Set in the days following Lee's surrender at Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination, the story weaves some unlikely connections that bind both events and people. More specifically, it tells the story of a wounded young Confederate soldier who returns home to find his family's two slaves and not much else. The soldier's family is Jewish, and the Passover Seder has a huge role in the plot.

There is an obvious potential for conflict here, and questions of religious faith and morality are explored during the runtime. Despite all the weighty issues, the opening act was humorous (at least that's how it played at the Caldwell). The last third had the revelatory twists that people expect from a play, although here they were pretty predictable.

I wish the performers mastered their Southern accents better (Brandon Morris in particular sometimes sounds like Foghorn Leghorn). The beats came a little quick in the first part of the play, with much of the dialogue being hurried through. As it went on, I think the performers got a little settled and started delivering better. Overall, it was an interesting show, and a good example of what can be done with three people, ninety minutes, and a bit of imagination.