Alumn Avery Brooks perfoms Paul Robeson

Play tells of first black football player, lawyer

A phenomenon playing a legend. Not a bad cast for "Paul Robeson," the play based on the actor-singer-athelete-lawyer Paul Robeson's life. The play, starring Oberlin alum Avery Brooks, is coming to Oberlin as a part of African-American Alumni Weekend.

Playing Robeson is Avery Brooks, OC '70, who has done the role off and on for over 15 years. The script, written by Philip Hayes Dean, is long, running at two hours 45 minutes, with only two characters: Robeson, and Lawrence Brown, played by Ernie Scott. Critics have called the script lengthy, but have a hard time finding fault with Brook's performance.

Brooks, who played the role after James Earl Jones, is accompanied by Scott, who plays Robeson's accompanist Lawrence Brown. There comes the musical aspect, where Brook's voice is almost as deep and resonant as Robeson's own.

Brook's role as Robeson is far different than his characters in the television shows "Spenser: For Hire" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Robeson, born in 1898 to former slaves, was the first black football player at Rutgers University (N.J) and a lawyer when black men weren't allowed as members of the American Bar Association.

Then came his performance career. He was the first black to play Othello in the longest-running Broadway performance of a Shakespeare play and reknown for his deep singing voice, performing in London theater.

His Communist ties caused him to leave the country after the State Department withdrew his passport in 1950 as a result of his acknowledging his allegiance with the Communist party.