Fly | The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

Fly is live history lesson that everyone needs to experience, to celebrate.

When the immensely talented cast of Fly took their final bow, I clapped and cheered for the men on stage, and when they walked off, I stood for a moment before exiting my aisle, racking my brain for a moment in some past history class when I’d learned of the Tuskegee Airmen. Surely, some mention had been made of them, I thought, but as I moved out of the theatre with the rest of the crowd, I realized that I had never actually heard of these men before that night, an almost criminal recognition.

But now, I feel as though I know each one of the airmen as if I’d sat next to them through flight training and on the plane next to them during their flight to WWII scarred Berlin. For instance, I can tell you that W.W. (Eddie R. Brown III), who was chosen to be leader of the small group, joined the force to impress a girl back in his hometown. He’s a real clown, but in an industry thick with racism, his humor kept his spirits up and the audience laughing throughout what is really an intense production. (Also, Brown speaks so quickly that he can be hard to understand, but bear with him because he has some of the greatest lines of the play). Oscar (Will Cobbs) fought with W.W. relentlessly throughout training, his serious demeanor a real buzzkill to W.W.’s antics and self-boasting nature. Oscar joined for his people, and he had a baby on the way. Chet Simpkins (David Pegram) is the youngest of the four airmen, younger even than those whose rank is above him ever realize. A much older Simpkins opens the show as our narrator, answering questions from an inaudible audience. He is calm, an observer and an explainer. Lastly, there is J. Allen (Terrell Donnell Sledge) who joined to make his family proud. He is quick to take the defensive when W.W. teases him for his heavy accent and is the only member of the four who doesn’t graduate with his pilot’s license.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black military airmen in a racist America that degraded African Americans and questioned their intelligence and patriotism. They trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field (TAAF) in Tuskegee, Alabama. As suggested on stage, these men (the graduates from this location numbered 992 between 1942 and 1946) fought two wars, one at home where they fought for respect and equal opportunity and one in the WWII skies.

Fly was written by Trey Ellis and Ricardo Khan, after the latter saw a photo of the men. The Repertory Theatre shared Khan’s thoughts on the image he saw: “Eyes glaring with determination, brown shoulders squared with pride. Their stance while posing in front of a P-51 Mustang at Ramitelli Air base in Italy brilliantly defied the bigoted and racist ramblings of the period.”

Khan’s skill as a director is evident throughout this production, as is choreographer Hope Clarke’s. Fly is a story about pilots and, though not one person is raised off the stage, the process of takeoff and the subsequent flights were more convincing than could have ever imagined possible through the intricate movements of the men, sound effects (expect gunshots and explosions), and footage of the clouds that appear on five propeller-like panels that rest above and at the back of the stage. The men pantomime everything from starting a furiously shaking engine to landing, all from a single, simple chair. The tension between the white flight instructor Captain O’Hurley (Greg Brostrom) and the men — the pure hate on the part of the white pilots — is nothing short of convincing, and encourages the audience to cheer on the young African American pilots all the more.

Although all of the characters are portrayed with the utmost emotional fervor, they are assisted by a very interesting theatre element that was new to me as an audience member — the griot. The Tap Griot (Omar Edwards) interacts minimally with the rest of the cast and isn’t exactly acknowledged when he does (he’s almost like a spirit), but his fierce, impassioned tap dancing represents the emotions of the men throughout the production. Edwards is the most talented tap dancer I have seen on the stage in a long time.

Over the course of the play, I became attached to each of the airmen whose determination I admired from the moment they were introduced. Not all of the men make it to the end of the play, and despite numerous moments for laughter, there are also moments for tears. Fly is live history lesson that everyone needs to experience, to celebrate. | Megan Washausen

Fly runs at The Reperatory Theatre of St. Louis through November 10. For tickets or information, call (314) 968-4925 or visit www.repstl.org.

Photo: Jerry Naunheim, Jr.