I thought I knew quite a bit about American history before I read Keith Josef Adkins’ new play, Safe House, about to have its world premiere at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. But his central characters, members of a “free family of color” in 1843 Kentucky, were in a situation that I did not know of.
Adkins’ play, inspired by some of his own family’s history, tells a story set within the world of slavery two decades before the Civil War. It’s the story of two brothers who have a kind of freedom but very different perspectives on how to exercise it.
His script is not merely a window to the past, it revolves around the very human story of sibling rivalry and tensions. Shoemaker Addison Pedigrew is the older of two brothers, ambitious and focused on playing by the rules to get ahead. His headstrong younger brother Frank is resentful of the many restrictions imposed on his family and other free people of color; his willfulness has placed his family in jeopardy ever since he and their Aunt Dorcas tried to help a slave escape. Another such instance could have dire consequences, but the impetuous Frank is not one to pay heed to his conservative brother’s wishes.
Safe House, presented by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, opens on Thursday and continues through Nov. 15. More info: cincyplay.com.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2014.
