The Sing Sing Correctional Facility is located about 30 miles north of Manhattan on the banks of the Hudson River. It once was the home to an electric chair dubbed "old Sparky." The Rosenbergs — Julias and Ethel — were executed there in 1953. The prison now houses about 1,700 inmates and employs some 900 people.
I'd wager that during the average American's day, even the average New Yorker’s, little or no thought is given to life inside Sing Sing or any other prison.
For that reason alone, Sing Sing merits attention.
The movie revolves around a prison-based program known as RTA (Rehabilitation Through Arts). Among other things, the program offers prisoners an opportunity to act and stage plays. Theater provides a chance to expand limited prison horizons.
Director Greg Kwedar employs (Colman Domingo) and a variety of the program's alumni to create a story about men who have found solace and hope practicing theater arts. Eighty-five percent of cast members were RTA veterans, and the story is based on a 2005 Esquire article by author John H. Richardson.
Domingo portrays Divine G, an even-tempered man who has made the group the focal point of his life. He shares a cell with Mike Mike (Sean San Jose), another convict whose participation in the program has given his life purpose.
The story brings Divine G and Mike Mike into contact with Divine Eye (Clarence Maclin), a prisoner who hasn't gotten a handle on his rage.
A question looms: What will the program offer Divine Eye and what will he offer it?
The movie also chronicles the development of Breakin' the Mummy's Code, a whacky comedy written by Brent Buell (Paul Raci), the program's theater director, a sympathetic character who listens, arbitrates disputes, and keeps troupe members focused.
Throughout the movie, Maclin's character struggles with Hamlet's "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy, eventually delivering it to the satisfaction of his fellow prisoners and us. I encourage you to read the speech and consider what it might mean to you if you were reading it behind bars.
Emotions are drawn from parole hearings, and the unexpected death of one of the characters sends Divine G into a deep depression. Coleman's performance shows what it's like for a man who prides himself on coping with reality to lose hope.
But the movie's positive message emerges in ways that can be moving and uplifting. Sing Sing put me in mind of one of my favorite quotes from Samuel Johnson, the 18th-century genius who's not known for his thoughts on American prisons.
"The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope,'' wrote Johnson. In theater, the men of Sing Sing find more than drama; they find hope that their humanity can't be destroyed.
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