Mortality play

Christopher Fidram, Lessley Harmon, Sam Perry, Clyde Holmes, and Kunta Kenyatta, playing the Lucasville Five.

by Rick Claypool

published April 11th 2007

Fourteen years ago this month, the lengthiest prison riot in American history occurred at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, Ohio. During the 11-day standoff, nine prisoners and one guard were killed; afterward, five men were accused of leading the riot and sentenced to death. Nevertheless, compelling evidence points to the innocence of these men, dubbed the “Lucasville Five,” and hostage negotiators claim they saved lives and helped negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict.

In June 2006, Attorney Staughton Lynd gave a copy of his book about the 1993 riot, “Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising,” to actor Gary Anderson. Anderson finished reading the book by the light of roman candles on the Fourth of July; that evening, he phoned Lynd to say he wanted to adapt the book into a dramatic performance. For months, Anderson and Lynd — with help from the Lucasville Five themselves — labored at the adaptation.

A former inmate of SOCF during the riot, Kunta Kenyatta portrays Lucasville Five member Keith Lamar for the performance. "It just so happened that I was spending 18 months in the hole when the riot happened," said Lamar. "I've seen torture, the kinds of things that outraged the public about Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay, going on in Ohio's prisons."

A close acquaintance of Lamar, Siddique Hasan and other Lucasville Five members, Kenyatta has remained a vocal prisoner rights activist. Now a board member of Ohio's Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) chapter, Kenyatta works toward establishing organizations to assist newly released prisoners during their transition to freedom.

Thanks to assistance from the Frederick Douglas Community Center in Toledo, Unitarian Universalist and Congregationalist churches in Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations, “Lucasville” has become an intense drama that’s touring Ohio for the month of April.

The Lucasville Five remain sentenced to death, and they continue to pursue appeals. Lynd's book has been banned from Ohio's prisons, but on Sunday, April 15, you can see the play at the Frederick Douglass Community Center, 1001 Indiana Ave., at 7:30 p.m. In addition, Anderson will perform the one-man drama portraying famous social justice lawyer Clarence Darrow (who defended a teacher of evolution during the Scopes “Monkey” Trial) in, “Clarence Darrow: The Search For Justice” at 2 p.m. Tickets $15 for each show, $12 for students/seniors, $25 for both shows. No one will be turned away for inability to pay. For more information, visit acluohio.org or call (216) 472-2209.