Look carefully before you think this show has anything to do with that Newbery Medal-winning book you read in grade school - The Whipping Boy, by Sid Fleischman. This is The Whipping Man, by playwright Matthew Lopez. In the play, set during the Civil War, an injured Jewish Confederate soldier returns home to find that his family has fled and his home has been reduced to rubble.

All that remains are two former slaves with whom he celebrates a simple Passover meal before learning a series of secrets that could cause each man more than just their freedom. Brett Gentile stars as Caleb, the soldier returning home, with Jeremy Decarlos as John and John W. Price as Simon - both freed slaves of Jewish faith who stick by their former captor, despite their oppression at his hands.

$26-$31; Pay what you can on Feb. 27. Feb. 23, 8 p.m.; Feb. 27-28, 7:30 p.m.; March 1-2, 8 p.m.; March 3, 2:30 p.m.; March 6-7, 7:30 p.m.; March 8-9, 8 p.m. Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, 650 E. Stonewall St. 704-342-2251. www.actorstheatrecharlotte.org.