‘Gallows’ Loses Impact in Lectures

Darryl Van Leer’s one-man show “The Gallows to the Gavel” at the Tamarind focuses on several famous African American men and their various impacts on the American scene. Written and directed by Van Leer, who also stars, “Gallows” is largely a loosely strung-together series of historical monologues culled from the individuals’ own writings and speeches.

Our theatrical “journey” is conducted by the angel Gabriel, who is taking us on a mystical train trip through time. However, this quaint narrative device fizzles along with Gabriel’s character, which effectively disappears from the proceedings after his initial introduction.

The play commences in the early 1830s with a secret meeting between preacher-slave Nat Turner and his co-conspirators, fanatical rebels bent on freedom--and butchery. Dry-as-dust monologues by Frederick Douglass and Marcus Garvey, two of Van Leer’s more unfortunately pontifical characters, follow. Blues greats Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, delightfully impersonated by Van Leer to the tune of his own air guitar, deliver a much-needed jolt to the play.

Although Van Leer seldom shows us the man behind the orator, his re-creations of Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. are vital and inspirational. Easy to see why Van Leer is so hot on the college circuit--but he needs to enliven his “lecture” to hook a general audience.

* “The Gallows to the Gavel,” Tamarind Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Mondays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. $15. (213) 466-1767. 1 hour, 30 minutes.