Race and Racism

Victoria Petrosino, New Rep Reviewer

David Mamet’s Race opens in the sparse, professional offices of a three-person law firm. Starbucks coffee cups share desk space with a Macbook and yellow legal pads, while light filters through a wall of beige Venetian blinds.  The action starts when Charles Strickland (Patrick Shea) enters, seeking the aid of lawyers Jack Lawson (Ken Cheeseman) and Henry Brown (Johhnie McQuarley).

Charles, a wealthy, older white man, has been accused of raping a young black woman in his hotel room. As Strickland indignantly protests his innocence, Lawson cynically observes that guilt or innocence doesn’t matter anyway. The jury will find Strickland guilty because he’s white and the woman is black: social conventions and the fear of appearing racist will influence the case more than facts. As the play goes on, these conventions are mocked, defied, and continue to polarize the characters into ever-shifting alliances against one another.

Ken Cheeseman is commanding and expressive as Jack Lawson. He moves with fevered energy and sweeping mannerisms, playing the great puppeteer who continually forces his colleagues to dig deeper and answer the question: “What does a guilty man look like?”  The actor invests brash, passionate disregard for political correctness into every cynical diatribe.  In the climactic finale between Lawson and his protégé Susan, Miranda Craigwell matches Cheeseman’s energy and brazen style, leaving the audience stricken at the abrupt power shift.   

In the 10/19/12 showing of Race, understudy Johnnie McQuarley played the part of lawyer Henry Brown. He expertly captured Brown’s sharp-witted style, playing the perfect foil to Lawson’s world-weary cynicism. He has a unique ability to appear sympathetic, even while cutting through evasions to point out the sordid, racially charged heart of the affair.
Mamet’s play is a compelling dialogue on an issue that plays (and will continue to play) a prominent role in social consciousness. Even after casting all conventions aside, after the characters shout openly about the guilt, shame, and inescapable taboos of racial conventions, nothing is solved.  The play itself concludes abruptly, with no catharsis and no resolution. Its structure mirrors the issue itself: dialogue can only scratch the surface on an issue; the characters still cannot see past race.

David Mamet tackles Race

by Frank Furnari, New Rep Reviewer

Race, David Mamet’s 90 minute, three-scene play about race in America is typical Mamet – brash, abrupt, filled with interrupted, repeated dialogue and bad language.  The play begins abruptly, in the middle of the action, at a law firm.  We meet Charles Strickland (played by Patrick Shea) asking the lawyers to take on his case.  He is accused of raping an African American woman (Charles is white).  The law firm consists of three lawyers, one white, Jack Lawson (Ken Cheeseman), and two black, Henry Brown (Cliffe Odle) and Susan (Miranda Craigwell) – a young woman who has recently completed law school.  As the play continues and the firm decides how to tackle Strickland's case, details emerge both about Strickland and about the lawyers.  I couldn't help but think of the musical Chicago with the way the lawyers explained the legal system and how there is no truth in the legal process.  While this is a very different piece, I was reminded of the song in Chicago – Give em' the ole dazzle dazzle - this is a similar idea, but in a much darker sense.  The play continues until, as Mamet explains in a New York Times piece reprinted in the program – the lie is exposed.  Shortly after the lie is exposed (it will likely not be the lie you are expecting), the play ends just as abruptly as it beings.  No neat or happy ending here.  

Director Robert Walsh assembles a stellar cast for this production. Ken Cheeseman's portrayal of Jack is a great mix of sleazy and smart, an astute lawyer and he really shines in scenes with the young lawyer Susan.  The two have great chemistry together.  The pacing is quick, almost too quick at times – while you are laughing at one line, you’ve missed the next three.  The actors are great with the dialogue and keeping things moving – they really make the piece an engaging one.  Janie E. Howland's set design effectively conveys the feel of a successful law firm's offices; it is professional, yet not over the top.  Along the walls of the office were vertical blinds that sounded as if they were shifting after each scene.  The effect, however, was pretty much lost on me until the final scene where they served to isolate the room from the rest of the office.  

While the play does make for an interesting evening of theatre, I'm unsure what Mamet hopes to add to the discussion on the subject that hasn't been said many times.  Race factors into many (all?) of our interactions, sometimes in more pronounced ways than others, and people can use that to their advantage – again, nothing new.  As Mamet states, we don't know when this struggle will be over, but it continue "until fatigue, remorse and finally forgiveness bring resolution."  His play, like the state of our country today, does not offer resolution, but hopefully continues the dialogue. 

"Race" Bold, Troubling

  

The topic of New Rep’s newest show, “Race,” is a timely and sensitive one, and the brash chutzpah of David Mamet’s script is matched by the boldness and vigor of the production.  Kudos to the actors for heartfelt performances, and to New Rep for taking the risk of a controversial script. 

Racial oppression is deeply entangled with this country’s history and our current social, economic, and political systems.  Mamet’s New York Times  letter to “Race” audiences, re-printed in the show’s program, calls the relationship between black and white Americans a fraught marriage, where “both sides at different times are bitching, and both at different times are bailing, but we’re all in the same boat.”

The boat metaphor works nicely for this show, where the four characters are all supposed to act as a team (three lawyers and their client), but there’s plenty of bitching and bailing on all sides.  The plot revolves around not only the case (an accusation of rape, which Mamet completely trivializes), but also around the intra-office tensions and fault lines (race, sex, age, and varying levels of bitterness). 

The actors deserve commendation for their unflinching portrayals of some less-than-savory characters.  Cliff Odle (who plays Henry Brown) in particular struck us as the heart and soul of the show, even though he isn’t as mouthy or emotional as the main lawyer, Jack Lawson (played by local favorite Ken Cheeseman).  Odle’s performance rings with authenticity, and we got the sense that this character best represents Mamet’s own viewpoints on the subject of race.  (Mamet for unknown reasons gives all of the characters, including Henry, several odd and out-of-place moments of ideological preaching; Odle handled these particularly well.)

Ultimately, the show attempts to convince its audience that race (and sex) lie just below the surface of every social interaction – and on this point, we (mostly) agree.  Yet Mamet then goes a step further to claim that race is a (or perhaps “the”) central motivating force in every action that we all take, as jury members, say, or lawyers, or newspaper-readers, or friends.  The final twist at the end, which attempts to drive home this thesis, is wildly improbable and downright offensive.  The philosophy about race, as a whole, mixes elements of truth and insight with noxious ideological non-thought.

Whatever you may think of Mamet’s racial theorizing, the show will make you think and talk a whole lot about race – and that is a good thing.  Through these discussions, Mamet promises us, “…we not only seem to be but are working it out.”  As the Jews say, from his mouth to God’s ears!

~ Shauna Shames & Johanna Ettin, New Rep Reviewers