Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 29, 1994 TAG: 9401290074
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by LENI ASHMORE SORENSEN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It is a remarkable coincidence that we have in America two magnificent voices who suffered from long periods of muteness.
Both Maya Angelou and James Earl Jones spent significant parts of their childhoods silent. She from the trauma of assault and he by an overwhelming and debilitating stutter. In that pained silence, it would seem, they were storing up the splendid words and emotions that would thrill audiences across the country and the world.
Angelou's autobiographical novels have been included in the literature taught in our colleges and her poetry hailed a new president. "Voices and Silences" is the story of the evolution of the voice of James Earl Jones, the voice of dread and delicious terror in the character of Darth Vader, and more recently in the wonderful silliness of telephone book advertisements.
Born in rural Mississippi and raised in Michigan, Jones spent 14 years honing his craft in order to be declared an overnight success in the role of Jack Johnson in "The Great White Hope," which opened to critical acclaim at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in 1967. The details of Jones's personal journey through childhood are nicely balanced with descriptions of his family history, a family forged out of slavery, migration, racism and poverty. His parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are presented whole and, as in most families, a mixture of flaws and grace.
Jones' career in the theater has spanned the years since the early fifties when Paul Robeson was blacklisted. It survived the long years when parts for blacks basically did not exist on Broadway, through and beyond the activist sixties with its resurgence of dynamic black theater. Issues of political correctness have been with us for years. Descriptions of the contentious nature of several productions with which Jones has been associated make clear how political all life really is, even for those who would choose to remain out of the fray.
Jones does not seem to have let the outside world sway his choices of work, and for that we must be both admiring and grateful. The relationship between the black boxer and his white mistress in "The Great White Hope" inspired hate mail from white racists, and the play about Paul Robeson brought out hostile pickets and newspaper recriminations from elements in the black community.
Of particular interest to readers involved in theater in either the community or at school are Jones's long discussions of major characters he has played; Shakespeare's Othello, Jack Johnson, Lenny in "Of Mice and Men," Paul Robeson, and Troy Maxson in August Wilson's "Fences." One does not often have the opportunity to see how a character appears to the actor and what motivations come into play when creating a living stage presence.
Jones was fortunate in his choice of a co-author. Herself a native Mississippian, Penelope Niven has caught the speech and texture of Jones origins. Three sections of photographs are wonderful windows into Jones's family and stage experience.
After describing his experiences in the world of television, Jones concludes the book with a look at his family life in the country retreat he has built in upstate New York. The peace he finds with his wife and young son has been well earned by a man who has given such pleasure to the world.
Leni Ashmore Sorensen is a graduate student at the College of William and Mary.
by CNB