REVIEW: Berkshire Theatre “The American Five”

REVIEW: “The American Five”

Berkshire Theatre Group, Stockbridge, MA

www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org

June 18 – July 11, 2026

by Simon Brighenti

“For nothing was simply one thing.” So wrote Virginia Woolf in “To the Lighthouse.”  That statement, which gets more profound as one contemplates it, applies to the brilliant regional premiere of “The American Five,” running at the Unicorn Theatre, one of the venues of Stockbridge Theatre. The production, which won the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play, chronicles the lead up to the iconic speech given by Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

The story by writer and environmental social scientist Chess Jakobs, in his playwriting debut, starts out in a nondescript DC hotel room just hours before Dr. King’s monumental oration. Four of the titular American Five are introduced as they trade ideas and theories on what Dr. King should say and how he should say it. The audience meets Dr. King (Rashun Carter), his wife and chief sounding board, Coretta Scott King (Sydney Elisabeth), a force of her own with which to be reckoned; Dr. King’s eminence grise Bayard Rustin (Destan Owens); and erstwhile LA lawyer-to the stars Clarence Jones (Brett Diggs). The key fifth main character – wealthy Jewish (yes, the fact he is Jewish is important to both his character and his relationship with the others) lawyer Stanley Levison (Harry Smith) is introduced shortly and soon joins the others in their march toward destiny.

This initial exposition foreshadows the theme within the production that nothing is indeed simply one thing. The audience finds that the four words most remembered – “I have a dream” – are the distillation of years of struggle and thought and, once the idea of a march on Washington is nurtured and developed, a scant few weeks of writing, rewriting, and deliberation.

The story, as skillfully directed Gerry McIntyre, weaves back and forth among key points in the life of Dr. King, exploring an early meeting between the idealistic not-yet-Dr. King and Coretta Scott who is initially hesitant to let herself fall under the rhetorical spell of her suitor, depicting his incarceration in the Birmingham Jail, and capturing the intense dynamic among the five characters as they work with and against each other toward a common goal. 

Each of the obviously talented actors is given an opportunity to explain and explore why they believe what their characters and Dr. King are doing is a worthy cause and calling and how they can relate to him and to the African American experience in part, as well.

The set, few era-appropriate props and overall mise-en-scene, including actual newsreel ambient footage, combine to emphasize well the key points of each year, location, and scene depicted. Scenic designer Baron E. Pugh leads a team of artists that allows the audience to immerse fully in the lives and times portrayed.

Virtually every worthy artistic piece or production has a resonance and relevance to the times in which it is produced, even if – and especially if in this case – the segment of history portrayed occurred decades prior. "The American Five" vibrantly and brilliantly portrays a moment in time that still resonates today.