Your Humble Servant In The Theatre, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, Shares A 25th Anniversary 1999 Stage Flashback:
Playing Fugard At The Heartland.
"Morris, the lighter younger brother, struggles to maintain his ground against his domineering working-class older and darker brother Zachariah. Actor-director Darryl Maximilian Robinson wears the laborer Zachariah's roughneck demeanor like a pair of well-worn work boots. Douglas Pelletier's portrayal of Morris is a perfect foil to Zachariah...Both actors bring their character's conflict to a boil in physical scenes that are as searing as the scenes of emotional sparring. This production of The Blood Knot shows the path to racial accommodation will not always be painless." -- Robert Schultz, The Chicago Outlines, Theatre, Feb. 17, 1999.
25 years ago this month, in January of 1999, this veteran stage actor and play director, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, had the pleasure of playing the role of the dark-skinned brother Zachariah opposite talented young actors Douglass Pelletier and Jonathan Pereira alternating as the light-skinned brother Morris in his Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago revival staging of the great South African playwright Athol Fugard's powerful anti-apartheid drama "The Blood Knot" upon the intimate stage of Chicago's Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre in the Rogers Park neighborhood of The Windy City.
"There are times when material and individuals click, They mesh. They congeal. Such is the case with the works of Athol Fugard and the actor/director/producer Darryl Maximilian Robinson. As the founder of The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago, a multiracial professional Chamber Theatre, he has performed such classics as Beckett, Shaw and Shakespeare with a historical perspective and a obvious love of the material. The production has been well staged. One reason is Robinson himself. His voice soars with appreciative emotion. His stage presence engulfs as it brings life to the character. His is a performance, very well executed. Crisply precise. But, when he performs in a Fugard play, something else happens. He no longer acts a role. He is the role." -- Al Boswell, A Point of View, The Gary Info, Feb. 4, 1999.
"Starring in Fugard's dramatic masterpiece are Darryl Maximilian Robinson as Zachariah and Jonathan Pereira as Morris, who are two brothers living in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, victims of the Satanic, oppressive apartheid...Both actors provided for the audience a profound and compelling interpretation of "The Blood Knot" of two brothers white and black who were both confused and bewildered. From beginning to its conclusion, Robinson and Pereira were totally involved in the play...Having seen many productions of "Blood Knot" since it first premiered two decades ago, Excaliber Shakespeare Company's production is by far the best I have witnessed." -- Earl Calloway, The Chicago Defender, Feb. 10, 1999.
The 1999 ESC production was honored to be Jeff Reccommended upon its opening night. The staging garnered several fine notices. And your humble servant, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, as Zachariah, and Jonathan Pereira as Morris, recreated their roles in Fugard's "The Blood Knot" in a video theatre rendition of the work recorded at The Heartland for a May 1999 Chicago Cable Access Television broadcast on local channel 19.
Though this revival of Fugard's first major work ultimately earned no Chicago Jeff Award nominations, in August of 1999, your humble servant in The Theatre, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, won a 1999 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance / Ira Aldridge Award nomination for Best Direction of An Ensemble for his work in Athol Fugard's powerful play.
Darryl Maximilian Robinson will always be grateful to his "Blood Knot" Brothers, Jonathan Pereira and Douglass Pelletier, for their fine work in Fugard's powerful drama at the much-missed Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre of Rogers Park.
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