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| Peter O'Connor, Sullivan Jones, Ka-Ling Cheung, Tiffany Nichole Greene Photo by T. Charles Erickson |
Theories and research are not the
stuff of great plays. That’s not to say that a playwright shouldn’t deal with
theories and shouldn’t do research, but the material needs to be distilled and
infused into characters rather than draped over their shoulders like a
multi-colored serape, there for the world to see…and supposedly admire.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of serapes in evidence currently at Long Wharf
Theatre, which is presenting Lydia Diamond’s Smart People. When the four outstanding actors don said serapes
didacticism seems to be a fifth character in the play; when they are allowed to
shrug off the cloaks, especially in the second act, the stage lights up, sparks
fly, and the audience gets to engage with people rather than ideas that walk
and talk.
The premise of the play is, as
noted, based on research, said research done by Susan T. Fiske on what has been
termed “implicit bias.” What, pray tell, is implicit bias? Well, put simply, it
suggests that our prejudices are in our DNA – it’s not so much cultural or
generational as it is genetic. Hence, white people, no matter how liberal they
believe themselves to be, how non-racist their actions may appear, are
inherently prejudiced against those who are “different” (They can’t help but
view black dolls as “ugly,” for example.) Put another way, scrape a liberal
down to his or her core and you will find a racist.
It’s an interesting hypothesis, but
it lies heavily on much of the evening. Diamond brings us four characters, under
the direction of Desdemona Chiang, to illuminate and test the hypothesis: Ginny
Yang (Ka-Ling Cheung), an Asian-American psychologist and something of a
shopaholic and control freak; Valerie (Tiffany Nichole Greene), a young black
actress who cleans houses to make the rent; Jackson Moore (Sullivan Jones), a
surgical intern who also happens to be black and has some authority issues; and
Brian White (Peter O’Connor), a Harvard professor, an angry middle-aged man who
has done the research that can prove that whites are inherently prejudiced –
they just can’t help themselves. His premise is bound to stir up the cultured
folks, especially those deans and professors at Harvard who pride themselves on
their liberal pedigrees.
It’s often difficult to distinguish
when these characters represent stereotypes and when they actually become
living, breathing “people,” for much of their dialogue, especially in the first
act, carries the weight of the research Diamond relies on. Thus, one might
often ask, are we listening to the character or the playwright as she checked
off items on her note pad?
There are also some off-putting
moments that might make the audience wonder what the playwright is trying to
say. Two of these deal with sexual encounters – a Valerie and Jackson quick
roll on the couch and a Ginny and Brian exercise in what…sexual exploitation?…ethnically
driven sexual fantasies? It’s not that the depiction of the sex acts is
off-putting -- both are actually quite demure -- it’s that they do not seem to
have any relevance to the play’s themes or to the characters – especially the
female characters. In other words, unless I’ve missed some inner meaning, the
sex scenes seem gratuitous.
As is often the case with plays
that deal with social issues via the interaction of couples, the second act
features a meal during which all four characters are brought together to bring
everything to a head. It’s at this meal that the serapes are dropped and the
characters truly come to life. However, this is followed by a conclusion that
is both enigmatic and an easy out, an imperator
ex machina if you will. The play ends with – and this is not a spoiler –
the inauguration of President Obama. Revealing this is not a spoiler because
the final scene has little to do with the ideas being dealt with, unless it’s a
statement that all of that white DNA has somehow passed through an alembic that
purified it, alchemically converting the dross of implicit bias into the gold
of…what?
Punctuated by many humorous lines
and some very interesting vignettes (chief among them Valerie auditioning for a
role that requires her to do a verbal Stepin Fetchit), Smart People ends up being part doctoral thesis and part play.
Smart
People runs through April 9. For tickets or more information call 203-787-4282
or go to www.longwharf.org.
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