'Best of Enemies' brings together KKK, civil rights activist in an unlikely bond

Despite the hopeful wish that our racist past continues to recede in the rear-view mirror, Mark St. Germain's "Best of Enemies," being performed by Theatre Tuscaloosa starting Friday, treads familiar ground.

"I think it's important to highlight that this is not a period piece," said YaYa Browne, who plays civil rights activist and community organizer Ann Atwater. Struggles to finally enforce Brown v. Board of Education's desegregation of Durham, N.C. schools took place in 1971. St. Germain based his play on a non-fiction book about that conflict, "The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South " by Osha Gray Davidson.

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"There's nothing in the show that's not happening now," Browne said. "I think that was the the oddest thing for me. It's not long ago. We're still having conversations about if we can have a Black history program at a local school ... which is very parallel to this story" about co-existence, voices being heard, liberty being available for all.

Friction rises when Bill Riddick (played by DeAnthony Mays), a Department of Education representative, brings Atwater together with Ku Klux Klan leader C.P. Ellis (Wescott Youngson) in process called charette, a guided mediation wherein sides present their respective cases, but then are tasked with together creating a feasible plan of action. Though others were involved in the 10 days of public meetings, Atwater and Ellis were co-chairs.

"We're fighting the same battle, but have two different ways of doing it," Browne said. Atwater's superpower was her refusal to be steered off course. "She has absolutely no fear of anything and she puts herself aside to get things done that need to get done. I think that she is the epitome of most black women who I know, because they have to do the things that need to be done."

Ellis was not highly educated, Youngson said, "...not the sharpest tool in the shed. He knows Jesse Helms (the anti-civil rights, anti-LGBTQ, anti-environmentalism, and so on, politician), and he knows the rhetoric of the Klan." Youngson believes Ellis got involved with the hate group out of ignorance, seeking group acceptance, following in the footsteps of his KKK father.. "C.P. is fighting against change. He hates it. ... It's an upheaval."

The real-life Riddick didn't actually like either Atwater or Ellis, said Mays, who's playing the Black North Carolinian..

"I believe Bill saw something in these two people that could really make a difference," he said. "He knew that if he got them together, something could happen, even though they hated each other."

Michael Thomas Walker directs, with a four-person cast which also includes Melissa Grantham as C.P.'s wife Mary Ellis. Riddick was a true believer in the charette process, he said.

"We put it out into the world, how we feel, and then we answer the question: How do we move forward?" said Walker, a Huntsville native and University of Alabama graduate, acting chair of the theater department at the University of Montevallo. "And it worked. It works. Several times....

"I think what is to me the most incredible part about it is that these two people come to understand ... that they're cut from the same cloth. They have many of the same struggles, and that (those issues) are tied to and rooted in poverty," Walker said. "When they make that discovery, things change for them."

As Mary Ellis, Grantham presents something of an in-between person, as other working-class folks may have been.

"She doesn't necessarily hold every grain of hate and prejudice that her husband does," Grantham said, but with her hands over-full raising four children, including one severaly disabled, outside concerns can seem somewhat distant. She feels her husband's gone too often, to the point Mary feels like a single mom. Her influence helps effect her husband's journey, though. "When Mary speaks, he listens," she said.

Theatre Tuscaloosa wants audiences to be aware this is adult stuff, harsh at times, ugly even; they're recommending it for those 16 and older, due to the subject matter.

"You're going to hear strong language," Walker said. "We're going to talk about uncomfortable things. ... You may see your kinfolk on stage. You may see your mom and your dad .... But as long as we acknowledge that this is historically acrurate, that this play is telling us of our recent past, then this is a story we need to remember.

"We need to hear the tough stuff, because that's how we get to move forward."

How to get tickets

Tickets for Theatre Tuscaloosa's production of "Best of Enemies" cost $19 for general admission; $17 for seniors, members of the military and SSCC employees; $14 for students, children, and groups of 10 or more; and $7 for SSCC students. Buy tickets online at www.theatretusc.com/best-of-enemies.

Performances will be in the Bean-Brown Theatre at the Shelton State Community College Martin campus, 9500 Old Greensboro Road. Showtimes are schedule for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and Feb. 23-24, with 2 p.m. matinees Sunday, Wednesday, and Feb. 25-26.

Note: Due to sensitive language and content, this play is appropriate for ages 16 and older. For more information, call 205-391-2277 or go to www.theatretusc.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Theatre Tuscaloosa brings different voices together in 'Best of Enemies'