Kirkus Reviews QR Code
ESCAPE TO FREEDOM: A Play About Young Frederick Douglass by Ossie Davis

ESCAPE TO FREEDOM: A Play About Young Frederick Douglass

By

Pub Date: May 1st, 1978
ISBN: 0140343555
Publisher: Viking

A free-flowing play without the standard breaks between scenes, and with one actor portraying Douglass on stage throughout as six others (three black, three white) come and go in a number of different roles. Sometimes speaking directly to the audience, more often presenting his story through dialogue, Fred starts off as a child learning the facts of slave life. He experiences as a revelation a master's explaining to his wife why slaves can't be taught to read and devotes himself thenceforth to literacy as the pathway to freedom. Punctuated with slave songs, abounding in incidents of white callousness and illogic, and emphasizing Douglass' proud determination, the dramatization is a natural choice for school and other group programs.