The Whipping Man Character Analysis

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The character that I have chosen to critique for this assignment is “Simon” played by Michael T. Kachingwe. Simon was one of the three characters in the play titled “The Whipping Man” written by Matthew Lopez and directed by C. Julian White. The production of “The Whipping Man” took place in Cal Poly Pomona University Theater. The production of “The Whipping Man” that I witnessed occurred on March 3rd 2018.
Physicality: The character Simon was an older African American man who was born a slave and has been a slave his entire life. When Simon walked he seemed to have a limp and leaned forward, to me this indicated that Simon has had a rough life that consisted of a lot of physical and strenuous labor. Simon also wore dirty clothing indicating that he worked in a not so clean area, that he did not have much clothing to wear, or he did not care about his appearance. The way Simon walked and looked made us believe that he was an African American slave in the south.
Diction: Simon was the one character that was the loudest and most understandable in the play. For example when Caleb was getting his leg amputated by Simon Caleb was screaming and pushing, however that did not stop us from hearing the words Simon was telling John about holding Caleb down.
Projection: The actor Michael T. Kachingwe was very loud and clear. Michael pronounced every …show more content…

Kachingwe took a few risks . The main risk that I believe Michael took was playing the role of an African American slave who is also a Jew. Even though there was not much name calling towards Simon there was some racial names in the play. Playing a person of a certain religion can also be controversial because religion will always be a controversial topic in any setting. An additional time when Michael took risks was when he was beating John and Caleb. When beating John he had to be carely not to throw him off stage, and when beating Caleb he had to make sure he did not drop him off the