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White People
By J.T. Rogers
Produced by The Gift Theatre
4802 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL
Tickets: 773- 283-7071 or www.thegifttheatre.org , $20-$25
Thur-Sat at 7:30 p.m., Sat matinee at 2:30 p.m.
Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission
Through March 1st
White People Delves Into White Fear
The Gift Theatre’s production of J.T. Rogers’ White People is a meditation on what it is to be white in America at the beginning of the 21st century. This play is actually a collection of three intertwined monologues, each exploring separate white perspectives on race, power, language, guilt and prejudice. The subject is obviously complex, but Rogers’ treatment of it is both insightful and sensitive, attempting not to offer solutions, but rather to identify issues and describe them in terms that might facilitate dialogue. Director Michael Patrick Thornton – wisely in my view – offers no audience talk-back following the show, though I understand that the play has been used in that way on several occasions. Questions are instead left for individual theatergoers to tackle on their own.
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Each of the characters in White People struggles to find language to enunciate what it is that they are feeling. Perhaps the clearest example of this can be found in the character of Dr. Alan Harris (Paul D’Addario), a young, liberal college professor adjusting to life in Brooklyn’s Stuyvesant Square neighborhood. Dr. Harris agonizes over a gifted young African American student. He has difficulty deciding how to refer to her – African American, Black, Woman of Color…er…Person of Color – they all stick uncomfortably in his throat. And he laments that he cannot always understand what she says. “When did ‘sick’ become good?” he asks. He sees the tyranny of one culture controlling the language, but after a violent attack on him and his wife, he acknowledges that white people cannot ever willingly surrender the power that cultural domination implies because that power creates possibility in life. As for those who would steal life’s possibilities?…well, there are words for them as well and they are always just below the surface, barely concealed, and ready to leap into the light in disquieting ways.
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Mara Lynn Doddson (Anna Carini) is a working class divorcee in North Carolina who is incensed by the migration of jobs both out of American and into the hands of the immigrants who pour into her native land. “We were here first,” she cries, “That means something. They should get in line.” Carini’s portrayal is textured and nuanced, avoiding stereotypical white trash characterizations. Mara Lynn is a former beauty queen who married the handsomest athlete around only to see their virtually assured dreams of glory dashed by the husband’s injury, the birth of a severely ill child and a lack of education that has rendered them permanently lower class in today’s America. The child’s Indian-born doctor is her only hope for the child and also the focus of her rage. The doctor says she is a lucky woman to be able to have good care; Mara Lynn can never see it that way.
Finally, we meet Martin Bahmueller (John Kelly Connolly), a New York-born lawyer who has clawed his way up the social ladder by following the rules…and by marrying well. He knows how to play the game and those who don’t aren’t worthy of the rewards the game can deliver. If you have “be” and “doing” in the same sentence, as in “be doing something,” you might as well have a sign on your back that says loser…or worse. Bahmueller has fought hard for his status and he just wants to be with people like him, people who know the rules and abide by them, no matter what their color. His family is crumbling and he cannot understand his kids and it is because the culture is overrun with people who do not know the rules. Their sleazy, degenerate culture is ruining the world in Bahmueller’s view and that view has disastrous consequences in his own family.
White People may not fully satisfy everyone – certainly not those looking for answers – but it is a well-written, thought-provoking show with top-notch acting. Director Thornton’s fast-moving production keeps the audience engaged and The Gift Theatre, known for telling great stories, has another in a string of successful presentations.
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Randy Hardwick
randyontheglobe@yahoo.com for comments
Date Reviewed: January 19, 2008
Jeff Recommended
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