'Berta, Berta'

“Berta in Meridian and she living at ease; I'm on old Parchman, got to work or leave.” The Echo Theater Company presents the West Coast premiere of Berta, Berta a sensuous love story by Angelica Chéri that was inspired by a prison chain gang song from Parchman Farm. Andi Chapman directs for a July 19 opening, with performances continuing through August 25. There will be three Pay-What-You-Want previews on July 16, July 17 and July 18.

DeJuan Christopher and Kacie Rogers star in Chéri’s unique, magical and heart-wrenching “fictional origin story” of the song “Berta, Berta.” In 1920s Mississippi, Leroy has committed an unforgivable crime and is ready to accept his punishment: incarceration at notorious Parchman Farm. He has just one final wish before he’s caught – a chance to make amends with his long lost love, Berta. Their reunion swells from a quarrelsome conjuring of the past to an impassioned plot to escape their impending fate.

The song was incorporated by August Wilson in his play, The Piano Lesson. Chéri first came across it while watching a production, and found herself haunted by it.

“What’s so striking about ‘Berta, Berta’ is that people from all over have sung this for decades and have no idea who the man is who originated this song or who the woman is who is the subject of this song,” she explained in an interview. “Every man who sang this song had his own Berta. He had the same longing, disenfranchisement, and captivity. Where did this song come from? I had to write an origin story.”

Parchman Farm remains an infamous prison in Mississippi that the Innocence Project calls “a prison modeled after a slave plantation.” In the years following emancipation, working prisoners to literal death was so commonplace that “not a single leased convict ever lived long enough to serve a sentence of ten years or more,” wrote David M. Oshinsky in “Worse Then Slavery,” his epic history of race and punishment in the deep South. According to a recent article in the UK Guardian, Parchman was also “the site of some of the most remarkable music in American history… Singing through the turmoil was not just common but routine at Parchman, whether inmates were musicians or not.

“Berta, Berta is a beautifully written, simple love story set against the backdrop of Jim Crow,” says Chapman. “It’s poetry – a book coming to life. Love can pierce through anything.”

Berta, Berta opens on Saturday, July 19, with performances continuing on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. through August 25. Additionally, there will be three preview performances on Wednesday, July 16; Thursday, July 17; and Friday, July 18, each at 8 p.m. Tickets are $38 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; all Monday night performances, as well as previews, are Pay-What-You-Want. Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Ave in Los Angeles, CA 90039.

For more information and to purchase tickets, call (747) 350-8066 or go to EchoTheaterCompany.com.