Author: Tom Williams

At one point in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, the title character mockingly describes his playwright upstairs neighbor as attempting to break the shackles of Ibsenesque naturalism. The Goodman’s supplementary materials for the show say it is reasonable to interpret the neighbor as Edward Albee, whom Hansberry considered emblematic of the cynicism and despair that was trendy at the time, and which she loathed. Hansberry, therefore, firmly in the tradition of Ibsen, wrote a mostly naturalistic drama exploring the conflict between pragmatism and “being true to oneself,” whatever that means, featuring the kind of people she was best acquainted with. Unfortunately, Hansberry was beset by depression and writers’ block brought on by cancer during her years of writing Sidney Burstein’s Window, causing the play to remain unfinished nearly until she was dead.

The story of how a North Carolina Klan leader in the 1970s reluctantly joined forces with a black civil rights activist to improve public schools, wound up befriending her, realized their mutual enemy in an oppressive economic system, and renounced the KKK in favor of a union has obvious appeal for the Christian Left. But what makes it amazing is that it’s true. Mark St. Germain’s 2012 adaptation of the book of the same name by Osha Gray Davidson is a chamber play which pulls no punches in portraying the depraved hatred of white supremacy and the resulting anger among African-Americans who endured the desegregation struggle. But today, when bigotry has once again reverted to its raw form amid economic tensions and strengthened opposition, the production of Best of Enemies at Provision Theater is a welcome bit of reasonable optimism.