Fathers and Sons offers insightful and captivating family drama

Fathers and Sons is currently playing at the ACT Theater. The performance takes place on a Shakespearean-style “theater-in-the-round”, where the stage is in the middle. This creates a sense of intimacy and challenges the director’s versatility.

Valerie Curtis Newton, the director of Fathers and Sons, meets this challenge. The stage is sparsely set, but the actors make good use of the space, wandering into the aisles when necessary.

The dialogue is simple and earnest, if somewhat clichéd at times, while the acting is inspired throughout. Reginald Andre Jackson plays Marcus, the conflicted author and former soldier whose momentary neglect of his son at a merry-go-round devastates his family. The family turmoil sheds light on the tensions that develop between fathers and sons.

The other father-son dynamics occur between Marcus and his father Leon (William Hall Jr.) and between Leon and his deceased father Bernard (William Penn).

Leon arrives as soon as he hears the alarming news of his grandson’s disappearance. His conversation with the distracted Marcus broaches a wide range of issues including pride, neglect, heredity, adultery, war, music and women.

The relationship between Marcus and his wife Yvette (Tracey A. Leigh) is filled with its share of tension as well. The story line traces their relationship in a series of interspersed flashbacks as the subject of Yvette comes up in Marcus and Leon’s discussion. These flashbacks are very well done and give the show an added sophistication, though they may be considered slightly bewildering for some.

Riddled with questions of love, murder and loss, Fathers and Sons, offers insight into the stirrings of the human heart. It provides a captivating depiction of people struggling to overcome the calamities of chance and heredity.