'Purlie Victorious' at Karamu House is a Biting, and Funny, Satire of the Jim Crow South

There's a reason playwright George S. Kaufman once pouted that "Satire is what closes on Saturday night." It's because satire is damn hard to pull off since it's based on a delicate twist: It's pretending to be what you're not so that you can undermine what you're pretending to be.

That is exactly the twist that keeps Purlie Victorious, now at Karamu House, aloft. Both hilarious and pungent, the energy in this 1961 script written by the renowned actor Ossie Davis never flags since the excellent Karamu cast, under the direction of Treva Offutt, pays attention to every jot and tittle of Davis's words and intent.

The set-up is a satirical goldmine. Set in the early 1960s, the right Reverend Purlie Victorious Judson has returned to his Georgia hometown, intent on getting back his inheritance from a local racist, the white-makes-right Ol' Cap'n Cotchipee. Playing fast and loose with facts, he plans to use young and innocent Lutibelle (a charming Kennedi Hobbs), whom he has brought with him, to pose as a relative of a recently deceased kin so she can claim the money for him.

A successful satire needs an edge that cuts and bleeds so that humor can rise out of that pain and overwhelm it. And this production generates gasps now and then when Cotchipee launches his racist insults with casual indifference. He has managed to turn the local Black population into his serfs by manipulating their pay and debts to him. As two characters discuss the quandry: "Every family owes him money." "How long?" "As long as they're Negroes."

But the humor inherent in these wonderfully-exaggerated characters makes it all click beautifully. In the title role, Dyrell Barnett is a constantly spinning and scheming optimist of the first order, diving into elaborate sermons at a moment's notice. Those dazzling spiels are entertaining and will no doubt gain even more resonance as Barnett finds additional contours within those rants.

As Purlie's brother, cotton-picker Gitlow Judson, Joshua McElroy lives up to his character's first name by bowing and scraping to the Cap'n while slyly maintaining his pride. And when he's called upon to croon a mellow gospel hymn to calm down his white boss, he does it with panache. Gitlow's wife Missy is a force of nature as portrayed by CorLesia Smith, who get as many laughs with her fierce physicality as she does with her words.

Of course, any play like this needs a villain worth his vile stripes, and Robert Branch is every inch a comically hateful redneck, dressed all in white with a gimpy leg and a heart full of bile. His disgust with his liberal-leaning son Charlie (Patrick McAllister) is as vibrant as his delusions of racial superiority.

In smaller roles, Pamela Morton shines as Idella, the woman charged with keeping Charlie dressed and fed, while Clayten Yoder and Michael Sharon hold down their duties and the local lawmen.

Thanks to director Offutt, the cast nails every scowl, cackle, grimace and grin—turning what might have been bland interchanges into laugh-out-loud moments.

Certainly, there is nothing funny about the Jim Crow south, but Offutt and playwright Davis reveal the truth about that time through the powerful weapon of humor.

As Purlie says at one point, "I never told a lie I meant to make come true some day." As we travel the road to make the goal of Black freedom and equality a reality, it helps to pause and share the laughs skillfully fashioned by this kind of lively theatrical gem.

Purlie Victorious
Through October 20 at Karamu House, 2355 E. 89 St., karamuhouse.org, 216-795-7070.

Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed