'Ballad of Emmett Till' tough to watch

Playwright Ifa Bayeza doesn't make things easy for an audience. Not that she should, not when she's based her play on the brief life and brutal death of Emmett Till, a black, 14-year-old boy from Chicago who in 1955 was tortured and murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman.

Watching that kind of horror should never be easy, and Bayeza makes sure of that. She depicts Till's lynching (which helped spark the civil rights movement) in an excruciating, exacting scene that comes late in the second act of her intense, operatic, imperfect play "The Ballad of Emmett Till," which had its world premiere this week at Goodman Theatre. Till's white attackers and the black men they forced to participate, beat the helpless boy in a gut-wrenching scene that seems to go on forever. It's not the only time this "Ballad" forces its audience to face harsh music.

One of the play's most harrowing scenes takes place late in Act I when in the middle of the night, the husband and brother-in-law of the woman Till was accused of insulting abduct him from his uncle's home. Director Oz Scott ratchets up the tension to an almost unbearable pitch in this loud, chaotic scene that unfolds on a dimly lit stage against the frightened cries of the family and the gruff threats of the killers. In a play that exposes the brutality of men, it is unforgettable.

More Coverage Video 'The Ballad of Emmett Till'

But "The Ballad of Emmett Till" also commemorates the indomitability of the spirit. At the same time, it celebrates the life of its namesake, revealing not only his martyrdom (subtly suggested in words, clumsily evoked in staging) but also the young man behind it. In the first act, which unfolds as a conventional bio-drama, we meet the irrepressible Emmett (a ferocious and sensitive performance by promising newcomer Joseph Anthony Byrd) and his mother, Mamie Till-Bradley, played by Deidrie Henry in a performance underscored by quiet strength and righteous defiance. To that end, Henry's portrayal of Mamie insisting upon an open casket for her son so that the world would see the terrible toll of racism makes a powerful example of unrestrained grief and understated dignity.

A precocious kid who overcame polio and a speech impediment, Emmett "compensates for his stutter with a swagger and a stare." A dapper dresser whose refusal to wear shoes without socks reflects his perception of himself as a sophisticated city boy, he's a garrulous kind of kid people would find exasperating if they didn't find him so endearing. Having convinced his wary mother to allow him to visit his Uncle Mose (John Wesley, very good in an uneven role) and Aunt Liz (Karen Aldridge), Emmett relishes his newfound freedom. But it's short-lived. An impulsive whistle directed at the wrong woman (a nicely embittered Kristina Johnson) makes certain of that.

Keeping the focus on the characters, Scott sets the action on a mostly bare set by G.W. Mercier. The backdrop consists of enormous pieces of what appear to be corrugated metal. Projected onto them are a kaleidoscope of images inspired by the paintings of Ed Clark. The set works, but the indistinct images fail to make much of an impact.

Bayeza's Emmett, every inch the teenage boy, rings true. The play's dialogue is so lyrical it sounds like a prose poem, and the scenes between Emmett and his family, especially between mother and son, are vivid and sincere. But the play lacks coherence. Double-casting the drama creates unnecessary confusion. Moreover, there's a discrepancy in tone between the straightforward first act and the slightly surreal and awkwardly conceived second act that makes it hard to tell what this play wants to be: historical biography or a psychological expose. The trial that begins the second act repeats verbatim bits of dialogue from the first. We can hardly forget the harrowing events we've just seen, repeating them simply stalls the narrative. The play could stand some tweaking, namely a more focused second act. But it should be seen, even if it's hard to watch.

"The Ballad of Emmett Till"

2#189;stars out of four

Location: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago

Times: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays; through June 1. Also 2 p.m. Thursday, May 22 and 29 and 7:30 p.m. May 27.

Running Time: About 2 hours, 40 minutes, with intermission

Tickets: $23-$70

Parking: Paid lots nearby

Box office: (312) 443-3800 or www.goodmantheatre.org

Rating: For adults, contains violence