Pill Hill. In Chicago, it's where the rich white folks live. It's a far distance from a sharecropper's cabin in Mississippi. For a young black man, the words represent hope and a belief that racism can eventually end.
"Pill Hill" is the ultimate goal, as well as the name of the play written by Samuel Kelly in 1992. Kelly tells the story of six young men coming of age in the 1970s in Chicago. They are the grandsons of men who picked cotton. They are the sons of men who worked in the steel mills.When the play opens, in 1973, they are working in a mill and talking about college. They are dreaming of breaking out of the mill, just the way their parents dreamed of leaving the fields.
The University of Utah African-American Studies program sponsored this play. It is one of the major Black History Month observances being held in Salt Lake City this February. "Pill Hill" is performed on a small stage with a simple set, upstairs at Wasatch Presbyterian Church.
This is a powerful play, powerfully acted. Director Richard Scharine has selected actors who are, for the most part, theater students from the U.
Carnell Cummings, who plays Joe, takes him through a lifetime full of transition in just a few hours. Cummings plays him bright - then tortured. Alfred Lawrence Smith is Ed, Joe's best friend.
Curley Green is Charlie, who gives the play its heart. Green, who is a slightly older and more experienced actor, is excellent. Slim Raney is Scott, also a complex character, a kind of tragic young man who thought football was going to be his ticket to the hill.
Robert Flores is Tony, glib and hip and full of a salesman's patter. Phil Mitchell brings an underlying sweetness to the role of Al, the real estate salesman.
On opening night there were a few uncomfortable minutes when Mitchell first came on stage with an apparent memory loss. The others did a beautiful job of helping him remember, just chatting with him until his lines came back. The glitch - while not something a director would want to have happen every night - actually showed what professional actors they are.
An abundance of emotion is written into this play. The audience quickly learns that emotions run high with these six friends. Whenever they get together it is to celebrate something - a success that invariably turns out to have a dark side.
Once in awhile the emotional tension feels too big and you long for the director to turn them all down a notch. For the most part, however, the emotions are on pitch. Especially if one considers they are student actors, these young men are excellent.
"Pill Hill" gives voice to every problem black Americans have faced over the past 25 years. The pain, the unfairness, the ironies of life - all are portrayed in three acts. The characters are by turns proud and hopeful, frustrated and angry, even jealous of each other.
But underlying even their meanest words is their compassion for each other. Theirs is a compassion born of understanding.
In one sense this play tells a bigger story than one of race. "Pill Hill" asks, "What is the human dream; which man comes closest to realizing it?"
As I see it, Charlie's dream is the most compelling. Charlie is the oldest of the men. When the others are just starting at the mill, Charlie has been working there 20 years. He is the only one who never set his sights on Pill Hill in the first place. His dream has less to do with appearances and more to do with dignity. His dream is to never again let his sons see him kneeling before a white man.
- Sensitivity rating: Contains mature themes and adult language. May not be suitable for younger children.