A Dose of History – and the Truth – on Stage

review by LIANN HERDER

What would you say if you were given a chance you never had? Resurrection ponders this very question as it intersects with one of the most violent moments in American history, the Tulsa Race Massacre. The play, told in a series of monologues and flashbacks, pushes its audience to their emotional limits as it breaks through their comfort zones to demand witness, seeking some form of justice after over a century of silence.

Between May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob attacked the businesses and residents of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, OK. The district was home to some of the most successful Black-owned businesses and individuals since Emancipation—so successful it was known as “Black Wall Street.” But in those two days, that small section of town became a warzone. The attack killed upwards of 300 people and displaced a further 10,000 residents—and then was purposefully erased from the annals of history by white supremacists.

Many Americans were first introduced to the event through HBO’s Watchmen in 2019, and media became a tool for education. Playwright Anne L. Thompson-Scretching goes further—it’s not just enough to know that the event was erased from history, Resurrection says—the people were erased too. Thompson-Scretching uses her imagination to fill the gaps left by decades of silence, creating characters whose full lives were prematurely ended because of white hatred.

The majority of the characters are fictitious save one: Dr. A.C. Jackson, a Black doctor who served both white and Black sides of the town. Jackson is brought to life by Courtney Everette, whose sagacity and sorrow permeates each scene; he is both phantasmal guide and a sort of heavenly judge, seeking morality in a world that seems to have none. All the actors pushed themselves to their limits emotionally—particularly impactful were the performances of Kevin Leonard, Moses Sesay, Monique Berkeley, and Katie Trubetsky, whose villainous character brought a much-needed sense of levity to an otherwise dark world.

The play runs close to three hours and is not easy viewing, as one would expect. At times, the monologues were histrionic, overwrought, and, unfortunately, too long. The narrative also incorporated Native tribes of Oklahoma, but their costuming featured stereotypical feathers and war paint and felt alienating in a story focusing on the divisions white people draw between races.

However, Thompson-Scretching attains her goal, which is to educate audiences to the brutality of racially motivated violence. The horrific deaths she imagines for her characters are clearly based on real-life horrors experienced by thousands of Black men and women for hundreds of years, and it was clear from the audience reactions that many could not bear to think of, much less experience, such acts of cruelty and inhumanity. The story, beyond all else, serves as a warning, and the characters ask the audience at the end, could this happen again? Without voicing it, the answer is clear: yes—but it is within our power to stop it.