First produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969, Lonne Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark Old Men became an immediate critical success and a defining work of its era. For decades, it stood as the definitive Black American family drama — a blueprint for generations of playwrights, including August Wilson. Now, in a limited Off-Broadway engagement at Theatre at St. Clement’s, the Negro Ensemble Company, alongside The Peccadillo Theater Company and Eric Falkenstein, returns to this seminal work with a first-class revival that reminds us why Elder’s voice still matters.
Norm Lewis
Set in a modest Harlem barbershop on 126th Street between Seventh and Lenox Avenues in the 1950s, the play centers on the Parker family’s efforts to survive in a world stacked against them. Russell Parker (Norm Lewis), once a vaudeville dancer now hobbled by two bad legs, spends his days playing checkers with his friend William Jenkins (James Foster Jr.) and reminiscing about lost glory. His two sons, Theo (Bryce Michael Wood) and Bobby (Jeremiah Packer) are lured into selling bootleg whiskey by a local criminal Blue (Calvin M. Thompson) after growing weary of low-paying jobs by “the man” – white bosses. Adele (Morgan Siobhan Green), Parker’s only employed child, supports the family while resenting the burden. When the brothers accept Blue’s proposition, it sets off a chain of events that ends in tragedy, laying bare the crushing weight of societal constraints on African American lives.
Jeremiah Packer, Norm Lewis and Bryce Wood
The two-act play, running two hours and twenty minutes, is solidly directed by Clinton Turner Davis, who resists the temptation to over-direct and force any heavy-handed concept; instead, he trusts his strong ensemble and gifted design team to serve the story’s emotional heft. Harry Feiner’s scenic design creates a realistic, worn-in barbershop, complete with a back room and a staircase leading to the Parkers’ home upstairs. What elevates the set further are stunning floor-to-ceiling drops depicting the streets of Harlem in photorealistic detail, beautifully backlit by Jimmy Lawlor’s atmospheric lighting design. Isabel Rubio’s costumes speak volumes before the actors even open their mouths, showing not only character but also the slow erosion of hope from act one to act two.
Felicia Boswell
The performances across the board are stellar. Felicia Boswell’s Young Girl brings a sharp, scheming presence that preys on Mr. Parker’s brief taste of financial success — calling her “Young Girl” is certainly a product of 1969. Boswell’s manipulative laugh thinly veils her calculating survival instinct, conveying volumes of subtext through each giggle and coy glance. Bryce Michael Wood’s Theo undergoes a striking physical and emotional transformation over the course of the play, morphing from an ambitious dreamer into a broken realist. James Foster Jr.’s Jenkins and Calvin M. Thompson’s Blue are both pitch-perfect portraits of men from this era given Jenkins’ natural elegance and Blue’s forced elegance, both worn like a second skin.
Morgan Siobahn Green
Morgan Siobhan Green’s Adele is a force of nature — sharp-tongued, fiercely protective, and rightfully furious — eliciting knowing snaps, nods, and murmured affirmations from the female audience members. Jeremiah Packer’s Bobby captures a young man’s desperate need for respect and autonomy, while Norm Lewis anchors the production with a performance full of aching humanity. His Russell Parker is a man whose spirit burns brighter than his aging body can sustain. Watching him succumb to greed, vanity, and false hope is like witnessing a slow-motion car crash: devastating and inevitable. His “ceremonies of dark old men” — the comforting, bittersweet stories he clings to — are the soul of Elder’s play, and Lewis brings them to life with heartbreaking authenticity.
Bryce Wood and Calvin M. Thompson
This revival of Ceremonies in Dark Old Men reminds us why Lonne Elder III’s work once stood as a towering influence in American drama. Thanks to Davis’s assured direction and deeply human cast, the Parker family’s dreams, failures, and fleeting moments of dignity resonate as sharply today as they did over half a century ago. Elder’s play is not a dusty artifact — it’s a living, breathing reminder of the cycles of hope and hardship that still echo through generations. With this production, Ceremonies reclaims its rightful place in influential playwriting, a poignant blueprint for storytelling that demands to be seen, heard, and felt anew.
Bryce Wood and Norm Lewis
photos by Maria Baranova
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46th St
Thurs-Sat at 7; Sun at 3 (dark May 2)
ends on May 18, 2025 EXTENDED to June 29, 2025
for tickets ($39-$89), visit The Peccadillo
Gregory Fletcher is an author, a theater professor, a playwright, director, and stage manager. His craft book on playwriting is entitled Shorts and Briefs, and publishing credits include two YA novels (Other People’s Crazy, and Other People’s Drama), 2 novellas in the series Inclusive Bedtime Stories, 2 short stories in The Night Bazaar series, and several essays. Website, Facebook, Instagram.
