In a limited run that ends this weekend in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Octagon theatre, We Shall Someday is a powerful and inspiring jazz-infused foray into the lives of three generations of an African-American family as they faced their commitment to combatting racism, exercising what John Lewis referred to as "Good Trouble", and challenging audiences to continue the route to justice.
Performed and mostly sung by a quartet of impressive actors/singers, their story tracks a time span starting in 1961, as Julius "Jules" Tate, Sr. [John Edwards], a man whose servility to white people has kept him "safe", hesitantly joins the Freedom Riders as he comes to realize that his integrity depends on making difficult choices; all at a cost to his family and his own life.
The second section focuses on Julius, Sr.'s daughter Ruby [Danyel Fulton], some years later in 1988, outraged when she visits her teenaged son in hospital after he was severely assaulted, reminding her of her father's death when she was a child.
Part three gives attention to Julius, Sr.'s grandson and Ruby's son Julius "Jay" Tate, II [Cole Thompson] in 1992 shortly after Rodney King was beaten. Following in his father's and mother's footsteps, "Jay" laments: "Ain't nobody done nothin bad enough to be beaten like that", and Ruby's maternal instincts philosophically comment that "it coulda been you" to her son.
Throughout, this trio is abetted by Jake Lowenthal, the sole white actor who plays a number of supporting roles as a sounding-board or a catalyst to the action.
Stunning visual projections of archival pictures give substantial impact to the words and lyrics, and music director Joel Jones conducts a small offstage jazz orchestra that creates a period and tense atmosphere to carry the play's strong messages.
There is a Coda at the end, where all four actors stand together to encourage all of us to fight injustice so that no one is left behind. Certainly an important message today.
