Live at BAM: ‘The Tallest Tree in the Forest’ recreates, celebrates Paul Robeson
Mary McLeod Bethune, the renowned early 20th century African-American educator and advocate, once called Paul Robeson “the tallest tree in our forest.” You’ll be forgiven if Robeson’s name isn’t immediately familiar; he’s not a big name in contemporary music and theater. But in his time — which is to say a big chunk of the mid-20th century — he was a big deal in music, film, theater and, to some extent, politics.
Daniel Beaty’s one-man play, “The Tallest Tree in the Forest,” pays homage to this nearly forgotten tragic hero of the pre-civil rights movement era. Beaty also starred in the Moisés Kaufman-directed production this month at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Jumping from role to role, he singlehandedly worked his way through what was, in essence, a powerful biopic about the iconoclastic artist. The effect was something like watching a live version of an audiobook; an elastic voice guided viewers across an emotionally-charged narrative arc encompassing a variety of characters.