Through March 8: “A Brick and a Bible” Finds Power in Craft, Music, and Collective Memory
Historical theater that respects its subject without embalming it.
“A Brick and a Bible,” produced by Bread and Roses Missouri, an arts nonprofit dedicated to worker-centered, socially engaged storytelling, arrives as a distinctive hybrid: part historical drama, part music-driven ensemble piece, shaped by co-playwrights Kathryn Bentley and Colin McLaughlin, composer Alicia Revé Like and director Rayme Cornell.
Drawn from the story of the 1933 Funsten strike, led by Black women workers in St. Louis, the play could easily have settled into lecture or exhortation. It could have chosen instruction over imagination. It could have leaned on moral certainty rather than dramatic construction.
Revé Like’s gospel-, jazz- and blues-inflected score, co-written with Anita Jackson during the rehearsal process, moves through the production as a parallel narrative, carrying emotional memory alongside dramatic action. Jackson’s contributions, developed in close collaboration with the company, deepen the musical architecture and strengthen the production’s expressive range. The result is theater that respects its subject without embalming it.
From its opening moments, the production establishes authority through musical and theatrical integration. Song, dialogue and movement flow into one another without strain. Scenes rise out of the score and return to it. Transitions feel earned rather than imposed. Nothing announces itself as “important.” Everything earns its place.
The staging remains clean and economical, allowing voices and bodies to carry the storytelling. Attention stays fixed on gesture, timing and ensemble interaction. Meaning is generated through accumulation rather than declaration. Craft does the persuasive work.
At its core, this is a genuinely collective effort. The company — Christina Yancy (Elizabeth), Thomasina Clarke (Delores), LaWanda Jackson (Carrie Smith), Alex Jay (Cora Lewis/Ms. Leonard), Ryan Lawson-Maeske (Bill Setner), Adrienne Spann (Greek Chorus 1/Josephine), Hassie Davis (Greek Chorus 2/Roberta) and Joshua Mayfield (Greek Chorus 3/Pastor) — operates as an integrated unit. Scenes are shaped collaboratively. Attention is shared. Energy is cumulative.
Many members of the cast sing, and they do so with expressive discipline. Vocals extend character rather than interrupt it. Choral passages generate communal force. Solos emerge organically from the dramatic arc. Music functions here as social glue as much as emotional release.
Within that strong collective frame, several performances register with particular distinction. Clarke’s Delores commands the stage with saucy, spicy authority and a believable swagger, projecting a Rosie-the-Riveter strength decades before that image entered popular culture. Yancy charts Elizabeth’s evolution with clarity and restraint, moving from naive, bookish desperation to grounded confidence and resolve. Jay gives Ms. Leonard both vulnerability and steel, shaping a portrait of pressure, endurance and moral complexity. Lawson-Maeske brings charm and quiet inspiration to his Communist Party organizer, rooting political conviction in human warmth rather than ideology.
Essential to the production’s vitality are onstage musicians Gregg Haynes and Willem Von Hombracht. They are not background presence. They are structural presence. Their playing establishes tone, sustains tension and bridges scenes with rhythmic continuity. Revé Like’s score lives through them, rendered with clarity, swing and emotional intelligence.
By the time the production reaches its close, “A Brick and a Bible” has earned its authority. It honors a pivotal chapter of St. Louis history without reducing it to slogan or sermon. Through disciplined ensemble work, precise direction and intelligent musical integration, archival fact becomes lived experience.
What remains is not a lesson delivered, but a story embodied. Carried through voice, rhythm and collective presence, it returns history to the realm of human action rather than abstraction. This is theater that trusts craft to carry meaning — and in doing so, allows memory, music and performance to do their work quietly, persuasively and with lasting effect.
“A Brick and a Bible” runs through March 8 at three St. Louis venues. Visit Bread and Roses Missouri’s website for schedules, locations and additional information.