Fairview

B-

It is difficult to review Jackie Sibblies Drury’s provocative new play at Soho Rep for two reasons. First, to say very much about it without spoiling the experience is problematic. Secondly, as someone who is not African-American, my very right to comment is challenged by the play itself. Nevertheless, I will proceed. Upon arrival in the theater, we are greeted with a generic upper-middle-class living-dining room done in peachy cream walls, beige furniture, a light wood dining set and off-white carpeting. It could easily be the set of a family tv show, especially since it is completely surrounded by a black frame. One by one, we meet the members of the African-American Frazier family — Beverly (Heather Alicia Simms; Barbecue), the stressed-out hostess of a milestone birthday party for her mother, who is resting upstairs; Dayton (Charles Browning), her easygoing loving husband; Jasmine (Roslyn Ruff; All the Way, Familiar), Beverly’s acerbic sister; and Keisha (Mayaa Boateng), Beverly and Dayton’s daughter, a high-achieving high school senior with a vague feeling that something is holding her back. Beverly’s brother had also been expected for the party, but his flight has been delayed. Beverly is unhappy that Keisha’s friend Erica will be stopping by to drop off something for Keisha. The first third of the play progresses much like a retro sitcom of no racial specificity unless family members breaking out in dance frequently is supposed to suggest some racial proclivity. The first scene ends abruptly with a blackout. Now we are getting into “spoiler” territory. When the lights come up, an all-white stage crew is restoring the set to its original condition. When the actors reappear, the first scene is repeated except that we don’t hear the onstage actors. Instead we hear the conversation of four apparently white people who are discussing what race they would choose to be if they could change their race. Jimbo (Luke Robertson; Neva) is a bit of a bully. Suze (Hannah Cabell; The Father, The Moors) is offended by the question. Mack (Jed Resnick; Avenue Q), possibly gay, wants to be a black woman because of their fierceness. Bets (Natalia Payne; The Last Match), who has a European accent, deplores the American obsession with race. The device of the overlaid conversation is clever, but seeing the entire first scene again seems excessive. In the final third of the play, the previously unseen white characters join the others on stage, bringing their expectations with them. Some of the plot developments and the ensuing mayhem, while fun to watch, seem partially unearned. The play takes a final abrupt turn with one of the characters making a request of the white audience members. Apparently, at some performances, this has stimulated some lively interaction between actor and audience, but at my performance, there was no such interaction and less than half the people complied. It seemed a flat, disappointing ending for a provocative play. The cast is very good. Mimi Lien’s (An Octoroon) set and Montana Levi Bianco’s (In the Blood) costumes are spot on. Amith Chandrashaker’s (Cardinal) lighting is very effective. Ryan Courtney’s props are delightfully excessive. Raja Feather Kelly’s choroeography is a treat. Director Sarah Benson (An Octoroon, In the Blood) maintains a firm grip. To some extent, I feel the playwright lost control of her material. Nevertheless, I will be eager to see her next work. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.

10 out of 12 **

Is it a coincidence that two promising playwrights named “Anne” or “Annie” have written lengthy plays set in a workplace that involves show business? First Annie Baker gave us The Flick, about the employees of a run-down movie theater. Now Anne Washburn (Mr. Burns: a Post-Electric Play) has penned a sly comedy about the actors, creative staff and backstage crew preparing for the opening of a play in a downtown Manhattan theater not unlike Soho Rep, where the show is playing. The production’s concept is a clever one: each audience member is given a listening device to follow the conversations of stage manager (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) and crew during the upcoming play’s tech rehearsal. For those not in the know, in which group I include myself, the “tech” is a long, tedious process in which all the elements of the play including lighting, sound design, costumes and set are finalized. The play’s title refers to the union rule that people may not work more than 10 hours in a 12-hour period. The actors in the play-within-a play (Gibson Frazier, Nina Hellman, Sue Jean Kim, David Ross and Thomas Jay Ryan) must deal with a director (Bruce McKenzie) who makes Hamlet look decisive by comparison. As the long rehearsal drags on, the work falls further and further behind schedule. Boredom and fatigue take their toll. Tempers flare and egos burst. Seeing Ryan lose his cool is one of the play’s greatest pleasures. It all ends with a Kumbaya moment that seemed only partially earned. While I admired the concept, I had problems with the execution. There are frequent boring passages, which I realize is part of the point, but nevertheless taxed my patience. There were many entertaining moments too but the fractured structure never came together for me. David Zinn’s set and Asta Bennie Hostetter’s costumes work well and Les Waters’s direction is sharp. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including intermission.

An Octoroon ****

After showing great promise with his recent play "Appropriate" at the Signature Theatre, Brendan Jacobs-Jenkins has fulfilled that promise -- and then some -- with this new work at Soho Rep. Jacobs-Jenkins is a master at appropriating theatrical tropes and reworking them into something new and more interesting. In the earlier play, he took the Southern dysfunctional family play and turned it inside out. In the current play the object of his deconstruction is "The Octoroon," an antebellum melodrama by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault, that opened at the Winter Garden in 1859 and ran for several years in road companies. The result is a meta-melodrama unlike anything I have seen before. The play opens with a depressed black actor, BJJ (Chris Myers) claiming to be the playwright, in his underwear, discussing a recent session with his therapist, during which he reveals his admiration for Boucicault. Suddenly Boucicault (Danny Wolohan) appears onstage and a shouting match ensues. They are joined by an assistant (Ben Horner) who helps them prepare for the play. BJJ applies whiteface makeup, the white assistant puts on blackface, and Boucicault adds redface, dresses in an Indian (no political correctness here!) costume with an elaborate feather headdress and performs a vigorous dance. Suddenly the rear wall of the stage collapses forward to reveal a bright all-white set with the floor covered with cotton balls, representing the Louisiana plantation Terrebonne where the action takes place. A trio of slaves -- Minnie (Jocelyn Bloh), Dido (Marsha Stephanie Blake) and Grace (Shyko Amos) -- take the place of a Greek chorus, but one that talks trash and contemporary psychobabble. The characters include George (Myers again), the young master who loves his 1/8th black cousin Zoe (Amber Gray), the evil overseer McClosky (Myers yet again) who also desires Zoe, the wealthy heiress Dora (Zoe Winters) who wants to wed George, the old house slave Peter (Horner again), the innocent young slave Paul (Horner once more) and his devoted Indian friend Wahnotee (Wolohan again), the auctioneer LaFouche (Wolohan) and a ship captain (uncredited). They are joined onstage by cellist Lester St. Louis whose music subtly underlines the action. The dialogue blends excerpts from Boucicault's play with Jacobs-Jenkins's inventions. The cast doubling opens clever opportunities such as a one-actor fight scene between George and McClosky. Meandering through the play at several points is an enigmatic Br'er Rabbit figure, a sharply dressed rabbit/man with a cottontail and a very expressive face. (It turns out that he is none other than the playwright himself.) Director Sarah Benson works wonders with the complex material, Mimi Lien's set is amazing, Wade Laboissonniere's costumes are wonderful, as are all other aspects of the production design. My compliments to Soho Rep for mounting such an ambtious play and congratulations to the playwright for his well-deserved Obie. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes including intermission.