Theater Review (NYC): ‘Redeemed’ by Chisa Hutchinson

A carceral cancer has overtaken the United States. We have a “prison-industrial complex” rife with terrible living conditions, violence, inequitable sentencing, and cruel and unusual punishments like excessive use of solitary confinement. At the same time, we have pushes for social justice, restorative justice, and other reforms countering these grim realities. Such movements can prompt consideration of whether and when an offender can and should be forgiven – or be considered, to put it more eloquently, redeemed. That’s the question Chisa Hutchinson tackles incisively with her play Redeemed, now at 59e59 Theaters as part of 59e59’s AMPLIFY Festival focusing on Hutchinson’s work.

Duel

This punchy two-hander began as a radio play, an origin one can discern in the spare-as-can-be set consisting of a table and two chairs. Trevor (Doug Harris), a white man, is serving time for manslaughter after killing a Chinese American man in a racist rage. Preparing for his first parole hearing after nine years in lockup, he has invited the victim’s sister and sole living relative, Claire (Elizabeth Sun), to visit him in prison.

Hoping for redemption through forgiveness, he tries with eloquence and apparent sincerity to convince Claire he’s no longer the man who beat her brother Mark, a Chinese-speaking stranger, to death a decade ago in a fit of racist resentment spurred by Mark’s apparent economic success. We learn that Trevor had emerged from a hard-knock upbringing to a successful career that had, alas, not lasted. Has he fully repented of his resulting hate crime? Is such repentance possible? Even if it is, can we expect a victim’s survivors to bestow forgiveness?

Revelations

Tension builds as Hutchinson’s finely crafted script carries a series of revelations that cast light on those questions. Some revelations are predictable, others unexpected. We learn what Claire does, and what Trevor did, for a living, neither fact incidental. We learn their backstories, also relevant.

The actors’ intensity and the fluid direction by marcus d. harvey keep the pace flowing. With the entire action revolving around one small table, a simple action like turning a chair from sideways to face the other person takes on pregnant meaning. As for the table, it stays put. But some figurative table-turning may be in store.

I could quibble that Sun and Harris inhabit slightly different performance-style universes, she more stylized, he more naturalistic. This can make Claire’s ongoing icy sarcasm, which persists through much of the first long scene, feel overdone.

Nonetheless we are treated to two compelling performances. The engagement between the characters comes to feel painfully real.

In the end, one character faces a life-altering choice, and their decision may tell us something about the true potential for redemption. Hutchinson provides no easy answers, though. In a time beset by hate crime, division, and political violence, such answers are impossible to come by. Still we must ask and address them, and that’s just what Redeemed does, with fury and finesse.

Redeemed runs through October 5 at 59e59 Theaters in New York. Visit the website for schedule and tickets, or visit or call the box office between 12 and 6pm.