By Paul Horsley

When manmade laws seem to contradict fundamental human law, how is a civil society to decide between right and wrong? The Coterie Theatre’s upcoming production of And Justice for Some: The Freedom Trial of Anthony Burns asks big questions: Though not exactly ripped from today’s headlines, it has lessons for all of us. In a co-production with UMKC Theatre, this play by Wendy Lement and Bethany Dunakin deals with a pre-Civil War trial in which an escaped slave was “reclaimed” by his southern owner in a Boston court. It doesn’t ask questions about the morality of slavery, as that would be too cut-and-dried: Instead it concerns the vagaries of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which Massachusetts State Judge Edward G. Loring believed forced him to return Anthony Burns to his Southern owner, regardless of his own misgivings and despite the laws of his own state. But the play’s concerns are current, as not only judges and lawyers but members of the public (for instance, those serving on juries) are even today asked to cast verdicts based on laws they might not agree with.

“Magistrates do not make laws, they administer the laws as they are committed to them,” says Judge Loring in the play, in language that is drawn from primary historical documents of the period. “On this depends the security of everything the law protects; and that security will be lost when magistrates shape their official action by their own personal feelings or that of popular opinion.” This play ultimately concerns the Massachusetts State Senate’s debate over whether to remove Judge Loring from the bench after his highly unpopular decision. As an epilogue, audience members are asked to act as senators, presenting their own arguments about adhering to a morally repugnant law.

“It’s about natural law versus manmade laws, which are sometimes antithetical,” said Jeff Church, the Coterie’s Producing Artistic Director since 1990. “Manmade laws sometimes are flawed or lack vision, and our job is to be vigilant.” The Coterie’s goal is not to legislate a “moral,” he said, but to open up discussion. “There’s no answer to this debate. The audience decides to keep Judge Loring or not keep Judge Loring. But along way people will probably say that the law needs to be changed. It kind of gives you a sense of why you should stay active in your local political process.” Young people, especially, are inclined to think that politics don’t matter, until they realize they can be agents for change. “What you do is, change the law. Or if you don’t like the way the judge rules: well, judges have to be elected, too.”

And Justice for Some is an example of “forum theater,” a type of open-ended stage setting (pioneered by the Coterie and others) in which audiences are encouraged actively to participate in the action. It’s easy to see how such a work can become an ideal teaching tool, and at the Coterie it is part of a “T.I.E.” initiative (Theater in Education) to bring middle- and high-school students into a vortex where theater and civic education meet. “Theater is inherently educational,” said Coterie Education Director Amanda Kibler. “Whenever you have a platform like this, you are educating people.” Toward preparing students for performances of And Justice for Some, Amanda and her colleagues are sending teaching artists into schools to coach them on how to argue their points in the open-ended discussion.

First and foremost the students are taught to engage in a civil debate, built on a foundation of mutual respect that is at the heart of theater itself. “The number one thing that we do when we teach theater is to teach empathy,” Amanda said. “Because to be an actor, to do theater at all, you have to step into someone else’s shoes and see things from their point of view.” And Justice for Some is rooted in the Coterie’s mission of using theater to open lines of communication between races, sexes and generations. “We don’t ever try to teach anything in the way of a moral, or that you should vote this way or that way,” Jeff said. “It’s really about the conversation and the idea-sharing.”

The goal is to plant seeds of curiosity about issues, Amanda said, so that young people can go out and inform their opinions with research and historical information. “When we’re younger and our brains are growing, we’re still figuring out the world. It’s the first time that we get to make decisions on how we feel, versus, echoing what we’ve heard all of our lives. You are starting to figure out your point of view. It may be the same and it may be different from that of the people who’ve been around you.”

Casting the nearly 40 characters of the play with a handful of UMKC Master of Fine Arts students has been both fun and challenging, Jeff said. As with the current Broadway hit Hamilton (in which actors of various ethnicities play the Founding Fathers), the casting for And Justice for Some requires an almost colorblind feel, or “color-aware” as Jeff called it. It’s an exercise that’s long been a part of the Coterie’s activities, he added, and it’s healthy for actors-in-training. “This notion of re-illustrating history by not being obsessed about the idea that ‘white people can only play white people’ is helpful in saying: History is everyone’s.”

The one exception to this is the figure of Anthony Burns, played by Edwin Brown III. “That role is race-specific,” Jeff said. “But with the rest of the roles, because everybody is playing multiple characters, you’re celebrating the power of what actors can bring to a role. … So that even if you’re different gender or a different race from the historical character, you can still portray it through your acting skill. It’s a good thing for students to be able to say, anybody can be anything.”

All photos courtesy of the Coterie Theatre.

And Justice for Some: The Trial of Anthony Burns, a co-production with UMKC Theatre, runs from January 26th to February 21st at the Coterie Theatre. For tickets and information call 816-474-6552 or go to thecoterie.org.

To reach Paul Horsley, Performing Arts Editor, send email to paul@kcindependent.com or find him on Facebook (paul.horsley.501) or Twitter (@phorsleycritic).