Purlie Victorious

Ford’s Theatre presents a free reading of Purlie Victorious, by Ossie Davis, with Michael McElroy, star of Big River: The Adventures of Huck Finn. The presentation is in tribute to the late Ossie Davis. Eric A. Ruffin, of Howard University, directs.

Purlie Victorious, a satire of black and white relations, pits Purlie Hudson, a black preacher who needs $500 to repurchase his church, against Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee, the wealthy white landowner who keeps blacks on his cotton plantation financially indebted to him and, for all intents and purposes, “enslaved.”

Davis, who died earlier this year, enjoyed a long and successful career as a social activist and respected stage, screen and television actor. He and his wife, Ruby Dee, starred in the original Purlie Victorious when it opened on Broadway in 1961.