White People
Subject: Quicktake - "White People" by J.T.Rogers
Date: Sun, Mar 18, 9:25 PM
Quicktake on TITLE
The New Rep’s smaller space opened last Fall with Diego Arciniegas performing “Thom Paine (based on nothing)”, an avant garde monodrama. Their last Downstage offering of the season is a trio of interlocked monodramas by J.T.Rogers entitled “White People” directed by Arciniegas. This intense piece has three “white” Americans, a corporate lawyer originally from Brooklyn but now managing a branch office in St. Louis, an idealistic young college instructor in lower Manhattan. and a former highschool beauty queen in North Carolina. The lawyer, Martin, played by Stephen Russell, has a teenage son who’s become a sullen skinhead, the teacher, Alan, done by Robert Knopf, is struggling to relate to his student’s slang, and Georgia Lyman’s Mara Lynn has an epileptic son.
The misery behind their lives unfolds through direct address woven together on a composite set by Harvard’s J. Michael Griggs. Stage right is an office being packed up where Michael’s tale unfolds. It stretches across to upstage left. The center is a pigeon-spattered bench in Stuyvesant Park where Alan describes his frustrations. Mara Lynn is mostly stage left or down center, except when she uses the office to remember visiting a Hindu doctor at the hospital. Upstage right a row of chair indicates a waiting room which unfortunately figures in each story. The question remains, why “white people?”
It boils down to language, most evidently for the teacher, but a stumbling block for all concerned. Martin has lost all contact with his son, Alan and his wife fall prey to street violence, and Mara Lynn feels that everyone from her husband to the doctor talks right through her. And behind each character are unresolved issues concerning race and class. It’s an unsettling show acted with admirable intensity. No solutions are offered and audience reaction could well depend on whether or not they identify with the three characters. The technical support, Charles Schoonmaker's well-chosen costumes, David Kahn’s careful lighting, and Scott G. Nason's sound design all contribute to the effect.
"White People" by J.T.Rogers, Mar. 9 - Apr. 1
Downstage at New Repertory Theatre
321 Arsenal St. Watertown, (617) 923 - 8487
New Rep
posted by will at 1:19 PM
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