After two extraordinary fresh-air performances in both Chicago and Washington, D.C., the remarkable E. Faye Butler finally gets to take Fannie Lou Hamer indoors.
When I last saw Butler, a Chicago star of the highest wattage, she was working on a stage on the back of a trailer in Abbott Park on Chicago’s South Side in September 2020. In the middle of her performance, phones pinged with the news of the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. That made the message of the civil rights leader seem all the more imperative, especially when Butler came back out at the end of the show and led the audience in a prayer. Some weeks later, she took the touring version of the show to the banks of the Potomac River, finding large crowds.
But the veteran playwright Cheryl L. West (“Pullman Porter Blues”) had created “Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer” for an indoor venue. And, finally, Butler has that opportunity to utterly command the stage without competing with the wind. As before, this 70-minute production in the Owen Theatre space is helmed by Henry Godinez, who, remarkably, is the director of both fall Goodman shows (“American Mariachi” just closed in the Albert mainstage), likely a first.
West has penned a straightforward, one-woman celebration of the former Mississippi sharecropper who famously noted that she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired” and who overcame all kinds of personal and external obstacles to become a moral center of the civil rights movement.
The show, which now features three live musicians in Deonté Brantley, Morgan E. and music director Felton Offard, is suffused with music and inspiring songs of the movement, including “This Little Light of Mine,” “I Love Everybody,” and “We Shall Not Be Moved.” Frequently, the audience is invited to sing along. And Colette Pollard’s set offers both a frame for Hamer and projections of the era, as designed by Rasean Davonte Johnson.
As was the case last year, Butler offers a richly layered performance that is both welcoming to all people and highly entertaining. For those who know little about Hamer’s life, there is a willingness to inform. For those that do, there’s an impulse to celebrate the achievements of what turned out to be an extraordinary American life, even though it ended at age 59.
Last year, it felt like Butler was focusing by necessity on Hamer’s struggle to be heard. This time, in a more controlled environment, this remarkable actress emphasizes a more existential theme, showing us how Hamer was always keeping on, keeping on, her eyes on the prize and marching her way toward freedom for both herself and others.
The dominant metaphor now is the persistence and importance of our journey through life and, really, what becomes possible for those who refused to be bowed.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer”
When: Through Nov. 21
Where: The Goodman’s Owen Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.
Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Tickets: $15-$45 at 312-443-3800 or www.goodmantheatre.org
COVID protocol: Audience members must provide proof of vaccination, or a negative COVID-19 PCR test from the last 72 hours, or a negative antigen test from the last 6 hours. Masks are required in the theater.
