Kirsten Greenidge’s new play, BALTIMORE (running through Feb. 28th
@ B.U. Studio Theatre on Huntington
Ave.) is a measured, deliberate examination of how
we deal with race and racism in the twenty first century. Greenidge draws
inspiration from writers like Countee Cullen (whose Harlem Renaissance poem
supplies Greenidge her title) and Toni Morrison (whose The Bluest Eye is
a heartbreaking story about an African-American child who wants to be white).
The action of the play swirls around an act of racist
graffiti in a college dorm which houses most of the students of color. The
white “artist” in question thinks the drawing is “a joke” in this post-racial
era and she doesn’t see why everyone is so upset. The late Supreme Court
justice Antonin Scalia, no less, opined last session that racism is a mere
relic of the past. Lord knows, plenty of white people cite President Obama as
evidence. (Then how do they explain the horrifying epidemic of young Black men
killed by police? But I digress.)
For some reason the actors in the BCAP/New Rep co-production deliver
Greenidge’s thoughtful, considered dialogue as if this were a Mamet play. Alas,
that halting, pausing Mamet style of speech only serves to make the actors look
like they’ve forgotten their lines.
Speaking of lines, the sightlines of three separate playing
areas necessitated my swiveling my head like an owl to see directly behind me.
Since I’m not a feathered creature, when I turned around as far as I could, rows
of audience members were directly in front of me and not the stage. One
audience member pulled my focus right to her, as she gesticulated and threw her
hands up to her face a number of times, sometimes covering her eyes. At first I
thought she was someone in terrible distress.
Then I noticed she was mouthing dialogue. When I had both the
actors and her in my field of vision, I realized they were synchronized as if
she were willing their words and gestures. Was she someone’s mother who had
heard the lines so many times that she was on automatic pilot? The director? Mrs.
Worthington?
The point is, however, I was so distracted that I cannot
write a cogent review. Sorry, Kirsten.
