The play The Whipping Man, will be performed at The Howard County Center for the Arts (8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City) November 11 and 12th. It was written by Matthew Lopez and directed by well-known Baltimore director, Barry Feinstein. The play tells the story of three Richmond Jews—a former Confederate soldier and two of his former slaves. The men are gathered around a makeshift Seder table at the close of the Civil War dealing with age-old questions of justice and freedom and finding new and surprising answers. The play opened in New York in 2006 and was acclaimed by the theater critics: “Haunting, striking, and powerful," said The New York Times. The production is presented by Heralds of Hope Theater Company and the Theatrical Mining Company. It stars Percy Thomas, Michael Joseph Dolan and Ian Smith in a show that earned rave reviews in Baltimore last month. It has played in over 40 cities since its New York opening. Performances at 8 pm Friday, November 11 and Saturday, November 12 at 3:00 and 8:00 pm. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2606096. Further information at 301-.503-3403.

Last month the play, with this cast and director, ran for three weeks at The Fells Point Corner Theater in Baltimore to rave reviews and standing ovations. “The Whipping Man is profoundly moving theater presented by three accomplished actors and a talented creative team. Go see this play with friends; you’re going to want to talk about it with someone after the curtain falls,” said DC Metro Theater Arts.

Its 1865, the south has lost the war, Richmond is in ruins and the slaves have been freed. Three men, one white and two black, all Jewish, wait for signs of life to return to the city. They wrestle with their shared past, the bitter irony of Jewish slave-owning and the reality of the new world in which they find themselves. The pain of their enslavement will not be soothed by Passover traditions, and deep-buried secrets from the past refuse to be hidden as the play comes to its shocking climax. The Whipping Man is a play about redemption and forgiveness, about the lasting scars of slavery, and the responsibility that comes with freedom.

The play draws parallels between the ongoing struggles for freedom by Jews and African Americans. About 150,000 Jews lived in the United States at the time of the American Civil War, 50,000 lived in the South. Many owned slaves and their slaves took their Jewish religion just as slaves owned by Christians took their owner’s religion.

A longtime fixture in Baltimore theater, Feinstein has directed for the Baltimore Playwrights Festival (BPF) every year but one since its inception in 1982, when he won the best play award. The founder of the Theatrical Mining Company (TMC), Feinstein favors plays that make a strong statement about the human condition and embrace controversial subjects. “We believe the purpose of theater is to inspire an audience to think and discuss the subject matter presented on stage,” he said. “Matthew Lopez’s play certainly fits that bill.”

The playwright, Matthew Lopez is a self-described “foxhole Episcopalian” from the Florida Panhandle, the son of a Puerto Rican father and a Polish-Russian mother. The Whipping Man, his first play in 2006, was inspired by his parents, both teachers, and his younger brother who “were a bunch of Civil War buffs.” As a gay man, bullied as a child and closeted until college, Lopez is familiar with the pain of being an outsider. Yet, he sees himself, in his character, Simon, as having an unbending sense of hope. His subsequent plays include The Sentinels, Somewhere, Reverberations and his latest, The Legend of Georgia McBride. Lopez was a staff writer on HBO’s “The Newsroom” and is adapting Javier Marias’ trilogy “Your Face Tomorrow” for the screen.