IN THE HEAT OF THE STORY
“They call me Mister Tibbs.” That’s the signature catchphrase from the celebrated 1967 film starring Sidney Poitier (the first African-American male Oscar winner) and rough-riding Rod Steiger, like George C. Scott, as visceral an actor as the screen could contain. Ebony and ivory, against their natures, these seeming stereotypes work to solve a murder in the backwater burg of Argo, Alabama. In the process they deliver a character and culture contrast as great as their racial mismatch. A sophisticated black detective from Pasadena and a Jim Crow-nasty police chief from Bumfuck, Dixie — this is not a bridge meant to be built.
In a new adaptation by Matt Pelfrey based on John Ball’s 1965 novel, In the Heat of the Night rekindles the perennial prejudices of the civil rights era. Since all politics are local, as with To Kill A Mockingbird, race relations come down to relationships, the tool and microcosm of history. In Louis Contey’s taut staging for Shattered Globe Theatre, change happens in the unlikely collaboration between Manny Buckley’s deadpan-dry detective Tibbs and Joseph Wiens’ gruff but grudging Chief Gillespie. In over their heads at solving the killing of a local real estate developer found sprawling face down on the main street, the local constabulary — knee-jerk racist Pete (Brian Scannell) and open-minded (if not -hearted) Sam Wood (Drew Schad) — reluctantly accept help from homicide expert Tibbs.
All but arrested at the train station for being black, slow and steady Tibbs refuses to give the white devils the victim they desire. Instead he promises to demure Melanie Tatum (Christina Gorman) to find the creature who clobbered her father in the back of his skull. Using forensic analysis worthy of C.S.I., Tibbs examines and eliminate suspects, his powers of observation and deduction as sharp as any sleuth on Baker Street.
Staying cool in the Alabama heat, Tibbs encounters potential predators among the foul-mouthed, lynch-mob denizens of Argo, yahoos full of unearned peckerwood entitlement. (The “N-word” and the epithet “boy” are heard continually.) Ball practically inventories variations on a theme of intolerance: visceral, equal-opportunity xenophobes; the genteel businessmen bigots; white-trash sluts; and a venal mayor (Steve Peebles) less upset by a hate crime than its publicity.
Depending on who’s doing the guessing, the murder gets reenacted with different scenarios and alternating assassins. But, once solved, the crime seems less important than the crime solving. The unexpected collaboration between Tibbs and Gillespie is a candle in the darkness of homegrown hate. That something good emerges from this venomous village shows how hope fuels history. It helps that, wiser than these redneck throwbacks, Tibbs gives his would-be persecutors nothing to loathe. Believably and beautifully, his perverse refusal to justify their fear and ignorance shocks them into contemplating his humanity. Notwithstanding ten radically realistic performances, it’s more than a theatrical pleasure to watch this miracle in the making.
photos by Michael Brosilow
In the Heat of the Night
Shattered Globe Theatre
Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave
Thurs-Sat at 8; Sun at 3
ends on June 5, 2106
for tickets, call 773.975.8150 or visit Theater Wit
for more theater info, visit Theatre in Chicago
