Nat Turner in Jerusalem
by Nathan Alan Davis

Name: Nat Turner in Jerusalem
Brand: Nathan Alan Davis
SKU: 9780573706141
Rating: 4.53 (3 reviews)

Nat Turner in Jerusalem Book Cover — Nat Turner in Jerusalem Cover

Highlights

Male

90 mins19th CenturyRole(s) for Black Actor(s)Interior SetPeriod Costumes

Synopsis

In August 1831, Nat Turner led a slave uprising that shook the conscience of the nation.

Turner’s startling account of his prophecy and the insurrection was recorded and published by attorney Thomas R. Gray.

Nathan Alan Davis writes a timely new play that imagines Turner’s final night in a jail cell in Jerusalem, Virginia, as he is revisited by Gray and they reckon with what has passed, and what the dawn will bring.

Woven with vivid imagery and indelible lyricism, Nat Turner in Jerusalem examines the power of an individual’s resolute convictions and their seismic reverberations through time.

Press Reviews

"The most interesting part of the creative exercise is not the activity inside Turner's cell, but the breadth of its implications about our relationship with history as a whole — whether 200 years past or flooding your Twitter feeds as we speak."
— TheaterMania

"While offering a corrective to earlier interpretations of Turner’s narrative, Davis doesn’t attempt to saddle it with an equally overbearing one; he resists any singular reading, let alone an overtly political one. He prefers to let the tale remain as mysterious and open-ended as possible, and thus, in its way, more terrifying."
— New York Magazine

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Thomas R. Gray (M, White, 30s): A lawyer, rhetorician and now the author of Nat’s confession.	—	30s	(M, White, 30s): A lawyer, rhetorician and now the author of Nat’s confession.
Guard (M, White, 30s): A jailor. Played by the actor playing Thomas Gray.	—	30s	(M, White, 30s): A jailor. Played by the actor playing Thomas Gray.
Nat Turner (M, Black, 30s) A religious leader, author of a slave uprising and now prisoner on the eve of his execution.	male	30s	(M, Black, 30s) A religious leader, author of a slave uprising and now prisoner on the eve of his execution.