By Asia Ewart
All photos provided by Asia Ewart.
To understand the story of Samm-Art Williams' "Home" is to understand resilience. It's to understand the feeling of hitting life's lowest point and then soaring back to where and when life made sense. The 2024 Broadway revival of Williams' 1979 work opened at the Todd Haimes Theatre on June 5 and immediately asked audiences to consider the importance of where we call home and how it plays a role in our lives.
"Home" opens on the old and weathered Cephus Miles (Tory Kittles), a middle-aged man from the rural community of Crossroads, North Carolina, sometime in the 1980s. Miles, rocking back and forth in a timeworn chair, is taunted by a group of local youth (Brittany Inge, Stori Ayers), who also serve as the show's revolving door of additional characters and occasional narrators. Cephus, hammering home his love of God to the youth who says he feels otherwise, takes the audience on a journey to his past, when God, as he shows throughout the 90-minute show, has left him.
Jumping back in time to the 1950s, "Home" first follows Cephus from childhood through his young adult years: carefree days on his grandfather's farm with his first love and Saturday night fish fries darken as his twenties give way to losing the family farm and losing his freedom after his pacifism toward the Vietnam War leads to Cephus being labeled a draft dodger. Cephus's struggle to hold onto the time and place he considered home—and forget it when he's at his lowest—becomes a lifelong struggle littered with financial hardship, fleeing the familiar for the unknown and vices to hide the pain. Throughout his journey, he wonders aloud where God went. The audience learns, with a touch of irony, that God is "on vacation down in Miami," a running joke that eventually hits home in an amusing way.
In a crowded Broadway season, "Home" pushes through the noise as a piece that touches the heartwarming parts of the human psyche and emerges with a message. Its intimate portrayal of Cephus's journey offers a poignant reflection on identity, belonging, and resilience. "Home" not only asks audiences to ponder the importance of roots and belonging, but also illustrates how our sense of place shapes our worldview, influences our choices, and ultimately defines our narrative.
The revival of Samm-Art Williams' "Home" is now playing at the Todd Haimes Theatre through July 21.
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