INTERVIEW: Britney Simpson on giving justice to Ann Dandridge in the new play ‘Lamentable Trial’
Photo: From left, Nance Williamson and Britney Simpson star in The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington. Photo courtesy of T. Charles Erickson / Provided by Matt Ross PR with permission.
The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, a play by James Ijames, is currently receiving a much-heralded production by the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, New York. The show, directed by Taylor Reynolds, tells the story of the enslaved people who are awaiting their freedom from a fever-riddled Martha Washington, the first First Lady. Her husband has died, and she appears to be on her deathbed. But before she leaves this world, she must stand trial for her actions, while simultaneously hearing the stories and sentiments of those who have been held in bondage at Mount Vernon, awaiting for their promised hour of liberation, according to press notes.
Throughout the evening, the audience, sitting beneath a tented theater overlooking the Hudson Valley, come to know the stories of William (Tyler Fauntleroy), Doll (Cyndii Johnson), Sucky Boy (Ralph Adriel Johnson), Priscilla (Claudia Logan) and Davy (Brandon St. Clair). Another pivotal character in the narrative is Ann Dandridge, played powerfully and movingly by Britney Simpson, an alumna of other Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival productions (she’ll also play Ariel later this summer in The Tempest for the company).
“I’ve worked for HVSF two seasons before this, so I was a part of their 2018 and 2019 seasons,” Simpson said in a recent phone interview. “I was already on their radar, and actually my friend, Kayla [Coleman], who had done the 2019 season, she played Little Red in Into the Woods, she had messaged me. … She told me that I should be auditioning for this show in particular, which came on the same day that the casting directors had asked me to audition for Ariel in The Tempest, so I was already set to audition for Ariel. But I had asked them, ‘May I also audition for Lamentable Trial?’ And sent in a tape, and weeks, weeks and weeks later that was followed by a Zoom audition, which are always quite awkward. Where do you look? Then I was offered the role.”
Simpson had known about the play and its writer, Ijames. She had watched an interview with him when the show previously ran at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. In that discussion, he had said that the Lamentable Trial had a Jordan Peele horror feel, and so that image is what Simpson brought with her when she read the play for the first time.
“The humor jumped off the page and the eeriness of it as well,” she said, adding that she was happy to see the show had different facets of Black culture and Black history front and center. “I think the aspects of the past and the present, and the ties between the two, really were made apparent and became more and more apparent when we got up on our feet, but it was certainly thrilling. Reading that there’s a game show on the page, how did that happen? There’s aspects like that [where I] was like, this is going to be interesting and great to manifest.”
Throughout this on-stage trial, the cast breaks into many different scenes, some with contemporary frames of reference, such as a TV judge show. As Simpson said, there’s an interesting and fascinating blending of the old and the new, providing a modern-day frame by which to view the events and people of the past. For the character of Ann, it’s a particularly important conversation and trial to have, one that is painful and purposeful, one that involves difficult themes of rape and racism, one that unearths the relationship she has with Martha and Martha’s family.
“Our director, Taylor Reynolds, she did an excellent job in the rehearsal place, making it an emotionally safe place to be and explore,” Simpson said about the creation process. “The majority of us in the room are people of color, and then you have Nance [Williamson as Martha Washington], who is just not only an extraordinary talent but a beautiful person. We all felt pretty safe in the room to talk about difficult things as they came up, and I think it forged a bond between us that has left us really safe.”
Simpson said the ensemble members would check in with one another, ensuring they were of the right “mind space” and “heart space.” They had regular conversations about the discoveries they each had made with the text.
“The practices outside of rehearsal really affect what’s going on on stage,” she said. “It’s a tiring piece, but there is humor in it. It’s also humor that is cultural, so you’re going to get different audience members who are absolutely going to have different experiences. You’re going to have audience members of African descent who are going to identify and be able to laugh at certain pieces, and you have audience members of non-Black descent who are going to have a very different experience with it. … Certain audience members are going to feel seen and heard, and certain audience members are going to be educated.”
Helping the cast provide historical context about Ann Dandridge, Martha Washington and other real-life characters in the play was dramaturg Martine Green-Rogers, who offered an overview of everyone’s individual parts and also set up a website to share research.
“I did research on Ann Dandridge,” Simpson said. “We read books. There was one in particular that was really insightful, [Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge]. … It was about Martha Washington’s most beloved slave named Ona Judge, who ended up running away at a young age and never returning. He spent the remainder of his life looking for her, so that was really informative for Nance and me.”
Simpson added: “I also think who Ann represents I feel is very important for me to do justice to. … I would say her survival and tenacity and lasting patience and care for Martha was the most important part of her story, but it’s important for me to reiterate and articulate and speak out and display and put on the table the various and abundant sins attached to America’s foundation so that we might look at them, confess them and repent in hopes that reconciliation will ultimately be the byproduct of all of that.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington, featuring Britney Simpson, plays through July 30 at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, New York. Click here for more information and tickets.
