"RACE" - Mamet at it again

RACE

Reviewed by: Sandi "D"
January 2010

David Mamet is at it again, as writer and director of what was slated to be another provocative and disturbing commentary on racial issues and political correctness. Ooh, all those ethnic slurs and four letter words that are supposed to make our blood boil as barely a sentence goes by without what is supposed to be shocking dialogue. We must all be thoroughly desensitized by now so that rather than gasps and outrage, the result is giggles and some chuckles. Well, with our first African-American President in office, things they are a changin’!

The story is about a rich, married white man Charles Strickland (Richard Thomas) who is accused of raping a young black girl wearing a red sequin dress. The dress is an important piece of information as its essence is more than just an object of clothing. We never see this girl whom Strickland says was his mistress and the sex consensual. However, when she accuses him, then sues him for rape, he chooses a law firm to represent him comprised of one white lawyer and one black.

Jack Lawson (James Spader) is the fast-talking, cynical know-it-all white lawyer, and Henry Brown (David Alan Grier) (is that name Brown a racial slur?) is his black partner equally adept. It’s unclear whether Susan (Kerry Washington) is a new fledgling lawyer or an assistant who was recently hired because, as Jack puts it, “I hired you because you’ve got talent.” Regardless of her position, she endures verbal abuse by both her bosses until she reveals her own agenda.

As the story twists and turns and the second act develops, Susan is illuminated as more than just a new hire with talent. Eventually, her underlying mission as an advocate to right the wrongs inflicted on black women result in a pivotal moment in the story.

The play is filled with Jack’s brand of sarcastic knowledge: black people are inclined to commit adultery, black people are fragile because they deal with shame, Strickland wants to confess because he’s white, all black people hate white people, and the usual lawyer conventions ‘we get paid either way’ along with accepted references to the theatrical nature of the practice of law. One-liner insults fly steadily between Strickland and Brown on the issues of race, their new client (is he innocent or guilty), their new hire Susan and the legal profession as a business. It all comes off as a big scam. . .who’s doing what to whom, when and how.

All four performers are well suited for their rolls, with Spader and Grier seeming more self-assured and Thomas a bit stiff until the play heats up in the second act allowing for more dynamics. Washington, too, grows exponentially in the second act.

“Race” has an open run at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre, also the home of former Mamet productions “Speed the Plow” and “November.” The scenic design is by Santo Loquasto.