By George Basler
John Brennan and Robert Alvin “Bobby” Rayburn have nothing in common. Rayburn is a mentally damaged white supremacist. Brennan is an educated white liberal who was once a prison counselor.
But in a major way they are the same. Both are damaged souls housed in adjacent cells on death row as they await their executions. Their interaction forms the basis for Coyote on a Fence, a compelling, morally complex play that is being given a first-rate production at Know Theatre in downtown Binghamton.
The production, directed by KNOW Artistic Director Tim Gleason, opened Sept. 15 and runs through this weekend (Sept. 29-Oct. 1). It features four actors who give nuanced, engrossing performances: Adam Holley and Joe Hoffmann as the two convicts; Qiana Watson as an emotionally conflicted prison guard, and Mitch Tiffany as a visiting New York Times reporter.
Coyote on a Fence is the work of Bruce Graham, a Pennsylvania native, who has written almost 40 scripts for stage, movies and television. The New York City production won The Rosenthal Prize and earned two Drama Desk nominations. It was also produced on London’s West End.
In a Zoom talk back session after a recent KNOW performance, Graham emphasized that Coyote is “not a death penalty play” taking a stand for, or against, the punishment. Instead, it’s a character study. “I wanted you (audience members) to feel something for people who are guilty,” Graham said.
Coyote makes no effort to romanticize the two doomed convicts. Brennan (played by Holley) is on death row for kicking a drug dealer to death when the dealer tried to cheat him on a sale. Rayburn (played by Hoffmann) is an avowed white supremacist who burned down a Black church, killing 37 people.
One of the play’s strong points is that it avoids the cliché of phony death row conversions in which the characters regret their actions. Both convicts remain unrepentant to the end. Rayburn truly believes he did God’s will in burning down the church. Brennan rationalizes his action and remains angry at what he considers an unjust system.
Coyote makes the characters understandable, if not sympathetic. The play asks the questions: Can either man be forgiven? Do they deserve forgiveness? No doubt, this is a difficult issue, and the play provides no answers.
The Rayburn character is the flashiest role in the play, and Hoffmann does a masterful job playing the racist. Rayburn is a victim of fetal alcohol system and an abusive mother. The result is mental deficiencies that have left him with an almost childlike innocence and goofiness. The traits can be endearing until the character spouts obscene rants against Blacks and Jews. Then, they’re chilling. Hoffmann makes the dichotomy between innocence and hate totally believable.
Brennan, by contrast, is a mass of contradictions. He has established a prison newsletter and written obituaries that attempt to humanize inmates on death row. At the same time, he simmers with anger and self-justification. He never takes responsibility for his act.
Playing a character who is so tightly wound, with rage just below the surface, requires a tightly restrained, yet intense performance. Holley does this effectively, and the result is compelling.
Watson, cast as a no-nonsense prison guard, gets to play some of the most emotional scenes in the play as she sits in a local bar talking to an unseen reporter. The actress, who is a mental health professional in real life, gives a gritty, multi-textured performance of a woman who has created an emotional wall around herself from years of working on death row. She is nearing burnout and knows it.
Watson is especially strong in the play’s last scene in which she describes looking through the glass window at multiple executions to see her own face, not that of the condemned inmates. Her performance adds an important layer to the play.
Mitch Tiffany also does a good job in the smaller role of the visiting reporter. The character angrily confronts Brennan for ignoring the crimes committed by the inmates whose obits he has written. This is a voice the play needs, and the scenes have a visceral emotion.
On the technical side, Terri Kiss, scenic designer; Gabrielle Button, lighting designer; Amanda Marsico, sound technician, and Joe Brofcak, lighting technician, deserve credit for creating the claustrophobic atmosphere of death row.
Without doubt, Coyote is a difficult play to get your arms around. The downbeat subject matter may be off-putting to some. But the KNOW production, for the acting alone, is a worthwhile effort that deserves to be seen.
IF YOU GO: Coyote on a Fence will conclude its run this weekend (Sept. 29-Oct. 1) at KNOW Theatre, 74 Carroll St., Binghamton. Performances are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets at $25 ($20 for seniors, $15 for students) can be purchased at knowtheatre.org.
