Psalmeyene 24 on directing Richard Wright’s Native Son and writing a play in response to James Baldwin’s criticism

Fans of Richard Wright’s iconic 1940 novel Native Son will want to head to Mosaic Theater Company in the upcoming weeks for the two plays, running in rep, which have emerged from the novel.

Not only will Mosaic be presenting a streamlined 90-minute adaptation of Wright’s controversial story of Bigger Thomas, adapted by actor/playwright Nambi E. Kelley, directed by Psalmayene 24, but that play will run in repertory with Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son, a new reimagining of Wright’s real-life meeting with James Baldwin, written by Psalmayene 24 and directed by Raymond O. Caldwell.

Baldwin bitterly denounced Wright’s story of Bigger Thomas, the African American youth who lived in utter poverty on Chicago’s South Side in the 1930s, and was accused of the murder of a white woman. It was nothing more, he said in his book, Notes of a Native Son, than a politically motivated, dangerous stereotype of the community.

Psalmayene 24 initially came to Mosaic after being asked to direct Native Son.

“I had not read Wright’s novel but I knew Baldwin’s book was part of the American canon, and it sounded like something I should consider,” Psalmayene 24 says. “I read Nambi Kelley’s adaptation and was just blown away by it. It was so sleek, theatrical and action-packed. I knew this was a piece that I must direct.” He approached the play by exploring “stylized realism.”

“[Wright’s] novel, beloved by many people, has also received quite a bit of criticism because of its portrayal of this black character and also how women are represented,” Psalmayene 24 says. “I didn’t want to shy away from either of those aspects of the story but to lean in and investigate those things.”

The director read Notes of a Native Son, Baldwin’s famed criticism, and was struck by what he said and the fact that Wright didn’t recognize his humanity. This led Psalmayene 24 to approach a segment of the play in a way that highlighted more of Bigger’s humanity and investigated some of the problems of the piece.

One of the interesting things about Kelley’s adaptation is that she turns the Black Rat, merely a symbol of Thomas’s squalor in Wright’s novel, into an actual character in the play.

“I thought that was a stroke of genius because the Black Rat is supposed to represent this idea of Bigger’s double consciousness, a theory made famous by W.E.B. Du Bois, in which he states black Americans have this sensation of ‘looking at one’s self through the eyes of others’ that is, the racial dominant culture,” he says. “I don’t know of too many black people who have not had that experience.”

Thinking more about this, Psalmayene 24 then wrote his own story about the famous 1953 meeting of Baldwin and Wright in Paris and the tough conversations they must have had about Native Son.

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“It was intended to be a companion piece. Because I have been living with Native Son for so long, Les Deux Noirs is truly in conversation with Native Son in specific parts of the text that reference specific moments,” he says. “I am in a very fortuitous position to be living so intimately with one piece and be writing a piece in dialogue with it. To me, they seem intertwined and even seem like one production in my mind.”

The idea was originally to do a reading of Les Deux Noirs, but then the rep slot became available and Ari Roth, Mosaic’s Artistic Director, asked Psalmayene 24 to fast track his script.

“With both pieces being fully realized, it feels like destiny,” Psalmayene 24 says. “I’ve had the pleasure of researching Native Son and both Wright and Baldwin, who are these powerful figures in American literature. I’ve really learned about their relationship and how complicated and rich it was.”

Baldwin published some scathing critiques of Wright’s work, even though the Wright was one of Baldwin’s mentors. “It was Richard Wright who helped James Baldwin get the grant that enabled him to go to Paris,” Psalmayene 24 says. “I thought the nuances and complications of their relationship were fascinating.”

Native Son stars Clayton Pelham, Jr. in the role of Bigger Thomas and Vaughn Midder as the Black Rat. Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of A Native Son features James J. Johnson as Richard Wright and Jeremy Keith Hunter (currently appearing in Togdog/Underdog at WSC Avant Bard) as James Baldwin.

Psalmayene 24 hopes that audiences will see both productions, and said “Simplistic as this may sound, Native Son is about the humanity of black people and that’s something that is being lost in the conversation. The ugly truth of the matter is, we are still being dehumanized, criminalized and vilified. It’s really about illuminating black people’s humanity through Bigger Thomas, who has the weight of oppression on his shoulders.”