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| re: could somebody spoil this for me? Here's the spoiler | |
| Posted by: oddone 07:06 am EDT 06/24/19 | |
| In reply to: re: could somebody spoil this for me? Here's the spoiler - bobjohnny 06:39 am EDT 06/24/19 | |
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| I'm another one who finds Fairview to be a bit more problematic than the critical establishment would have you believe. To spell out the "twist" even more, near the end of the play, the company asks any white-identifying audience members (i.e., most of them) to go up onstage, while permitting any who identify as people of color to remain in the audience. It takes a bit at first for the audience to get moving, and the cast waits for people to go up, saying things like "we're not going continue until you all go up there" or whatever. Those in the cast who are white go on stage as well; those who aren't, sit in the audience. The idea is to "flip" the trope of "white people LOOKING AT black people" or "black people PERFORMING FOR white people" on its head. So the people of color then get to look at the white people. And for what it's worth, the lighting design is such that as the white audience members are on stage, the lights slowly get hotter, making it more "uncomfortable" to be onstage (at least at the Soho Rep it was like this). One of my problems is, that when you have a mostly white audience, this "flip" doesn't really happen - the very few people of color left in the audience become that much more obvious - now the white audience gets to look at them (the audience seating at the Soho Rep was dark, but you could still see them). I found that actually walking up on stage becomes much more anonymous - you're still a part of a big group- you've just moved position a tad. It doesn't do the deconstructing it claims to be doing. Not to mention that the gaze being tackled here is one that the play ends up simplifying far more than the audience members themselves do. Black-white relations are constructed in the play as VERY generic and stereotyped. It's always "black people performing for white people," but of course, as Strange Loop attempts to address, black people also perform, or feel pressure to perform, in similar kinds of stereotypical ways, for BLACK people all the time. And then you have the ability for some white audience members not to move - no one confronts them, because the question is put to the audience along the lines of "how do you identify?" Well, if you identify as in some way oppressed, then I guess it's ok to stay where you are. But that also isn't how the world works. To a previous poster's point - I actually liked Strange Loop a lot. I think it was tackling more stereotypes/expectations within black culture, and was less concerned with making white audiences feel a certain way. It held off on trying to implicate any one group en masse. The play I think has some similar intent to Fairview is the even more problematic Slave Play, where a white audience is told they are BAD BAD BAD - and because they are encouraged to feel bad about themselves, they get to feel GOOD about themselves for feeling so "woke." It's so clearly a play written to bilk money out of progressive white theatres who want to "say something important about race," and sure enough, the mostly white critical establishment fell head over heels for it. I don't think Fairview is quite as repulsive as Slave Play; indeed, there is a lot about it BEFORE the "twist" that I think works quite well. But because I knew the twist was coming, I couldn't help but view it with that end in mind. Finally, someone else was asking about a transfer? This IS the transfer. It played at Soho Rep back in 2018, and like happened with An Octoroon, after many months, the production reappeared at TFANA. I doubt it will do another production in NYC (but after the Pulitzer, definitely look for it around the country). I don't think it is a play that is dependent on its cast. White theatres everywhere will no doubt take a year off from August Wilson and slot it in their "black play" slot. |
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| re: could somebody spoil this for me? Here's the spoiler | |
| Last Edit: Shutterbug 11:13 am EDT 06/24/19 | |
| Posted by: Shutterbug 11:12 am EDT 06/24/19 | |
| In reply to: re: could somebody spoil this for me? Here's the spoiler - oddone 07:06 am EDT 06/24/19 | |
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| There’s a lot going on in this play besides what folks are referring to as the final twist. I think reducing this play to its final moments does a disservice to the artistic vision of the playwright. The final moment/monologue ties the work together and bring its themes to a visceral and undeniable conclusion, but there’s so much more to the script than that. This play is bound to be polarizing, and I think it’s power can be seen in the responses generated by this thread. |
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| re: could somebody spoil this for me? Here's the spoiler | |
| Posted by: singleticket 10:42 am EDT 06/24/19 | |
| In reply to: re: could somebody spoil this for me? Here's the spoiler - oddone 07:06 am EDT 06/24/19 | |
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| Black-white relations are constructed in the play as VERY generic and stereotyped. At first I felt that way, mainly through the dialogue of the offstage white actors in what felt to me like "the second act". But then when the white actors start to participate in the drama, taking over black roles, morphing into them, I found that the play reached another dimension of critique. I was particularly struck by what seemed to me to be the gay male voice that found its way into embodying the sassy homegirl in the "third act". |
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