NATIVE GUARD

The Alliance Theatre of Atlanta has created a dramatic version of Trethewey's 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, and it is a marvelous presentation of the poetry. January LaVoy is The Poet, reading the works that Trethewey wrote for and about her mother, and Thomas Neal Antwon Ghant is The Native Guard, representing the men who traded service in the Union army for freedom from slavery. Both narrators have a deep understanding of the poems they read and the dramatic skill to convey them. The music that punctuates the performance is well chosen and well performed, adding still more to the emotional experience. Trethewey, who was twice the U.S. Poet Laureate, is a fine reader of her own work, but this presentation has found a way to go an interpretive step further. D.M.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2018]