Stage Write

I wasn't sure what to expect with the Indiana Repertory Theatre's season opening show, "The Heavens are Hung in Black." The play focuses on Abraham Lincoln's presidential term and in less gifted hands it could have become a dry historical drama. Instead it's a portrait of a tortured man. A man wracked with grief, who is forced to make some of the toughest political decisions of all time, all while desperately trying to hang on to his sanity. The play was originally commissioned by the Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated, in Washington D.C. This being the bicentennial year of Lincoln's birth, there's no better time to bring it to an Indiana stage. It's relevance is obvious on that front, but its deeper significance becomes evident as the show progresses. America has a black president for the first time and Lincoln was the the man behind the Emancipation Proclamation which gave slave their freedom so many years ago. The show is written...