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| James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: mikem 09:54 am EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| James Ijames is the Lead Artistic Director for the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia this season, and he directed the final production of the season, Jackie Sibblies Drury's "Fairview." The cast is excellent, and it is well worth seeing. I saw the show in NY as well, and I believe the white characters in "Act II" there were never seen and were only disembodied voices. In this production, they are at the very back of the stage, visible through Venetian blinds that cover picture windows at the back of the living room set. You can't see them well, and you're kind of straining to do so, which takes some of the focus off what they are saying. I think it was distracting to have them there. The finale was not as effective as when I saw it in NY, for reasons that I don't think the theater could have done much about. There were very, very few people of color in the audience, and a large number of the white members of the audience did not participate, so most of the seated audience at the end were white. I think the only thing that the theater could have done is try to get more of the white audience members to participate by prepping them a little during a pre-show announcement, although trying to word that without giving away too much would be difficult. I don't know if I've ever seen another show at that theater that had audience participation, and I think many audience members were confused at first about what was happening. I saw it in NY towards the end of the run, and many audience members got up quickly. That did not happen here. Brett Ashley Robinson, the actress who gave the final monologue, was really excellent, but the rest of the cast was also very strong. |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: AC126748 12:30 pm EDT 06/21/22 | |
| In reply to: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - mikem 09:54 am EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| James is a very good director of actors -- likely because he started out as an actor himself -- and that comes through here. I think the core family is actually stronger as a whole unit than their NYC counterparts. (For the record, I saw Jenn Kidwell as Aunt Jasmine, who stepped in for Jaylene Clark Owens this past weekend.) I agree that the homogeneity of the audiences at the Wilma blunt the conclusion somewhat, but I also think the play itself has lost some of its shock value the longer it's been around. Still, after the horrendous back-to-back Chekhov desecrations, it was nice to see something at the Wilma this season that was actually watchable. | |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Last Edit: mikem 11:54 pm EDT 06/21/22 | |
| Posted by: mikem 11:53 pm EDT 06/21/22 | |
| In reply to: re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - AC126748 12:30 pm EDT 06/21/22 | |
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| Yes, I agree that the actors playing the family really seemed like they were a family. I imagine that part of that comes from their all being from Wilma's Hothouse troupe, so they know each other well and have acted together many times before. I sometimes have mixed feelings about the local companies using the same actors over and over again (the Arden is the worst for this IMO), but the Hothouse Company is a bit different, and I think it works well. This was my first Wilma show since the return of live performances, but it sounds like I should be thankful I missed the Chekhov plays! | |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: student_rush 12:28 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
| In reply to: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - mikem 09:54 am EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| The ending is the cherry on top of the "college thesis masquerading as mature theatre" ... it only ever reveals how few audience members of color have come to see the show. And this is purportedly the white audience/subscribers' fault? In New York, I (white male) saw the play with my friend (black female) and she HATED the feeling of isolation that accompanied the removal of the white audience. In Brooklyn at TFANA, there were maybe twenty POC audience members, all being gawked at by the horde of white audience members gathered onstage. I understand the goal is to recontextualize the role of the white gaze, but I think it falters and fails at every step of the playwright's execution. | |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: TimDunleavy 10:32 am EDT 06/20/22 | |
| In reply to: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - mikem 09:54 am EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| Thank you very much for this, Mike. I won't be seeing the production - not because of the subject matter, but because I was very reluctantly dragged into an audience participation at the Arden a few years back. And while everything turned out very well in the end, it caused so much anxiety at the moment that I'd rather not relive the experience. |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Last Edit: Shutterbug 01:12 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
| Posted by: Shutterbug 01:10 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
| In reply to: re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - TimDunleavy 10:32 am EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| Tim, I don’t know if this will be helpful to you or not, but I found the “audience participation” not anxiety producing at all. I haven’t seen this production, but when I saw it in NY, this is what I remember: Toward the end of the show, one of the characters asks all of the white audience members to come forward and join her on the stage. Once everyone is on stage, she delivers a monologue and then everyone returns to their seats. No one is singled out, and no one is asked to say anything. It’s just the white audience members standing together en masse on the stage while the actor delivers her monologue. And…no one is forced to participate. At the show I attended, several white audience members chose to stay seated. It was all voluntary. I share this just to say don’t let the idea of audience participation hold you back from seeing the show. It is a very affecting piece of theater and gives you a lot to think about afterwards. I really enjoyed it. This was several years ago. If my memory is faulty or others had a different experience, please feel free to correct me. I don’t recall it being anxiety provoking like speaking in front of a crowd or being singled out as an individual would be. Just my two cents. |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 05:22 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
| In reply to: re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - Shutterbug 01:10 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| I think each person’s anxiety will vary. Unlike much audience participation, you aren’t all to perform, but you are asked to experience what it is to be watched by an audience while you are simply existing in a space, which is the underlying treatise and provocation of the show: this is what Black people experience everyday in this country, can you as a White person experience it for a few minutes? | |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: hanon 03:05 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
| In reply to: re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - Shutterbug 01:10 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| I saw Fairview in Brooklyn. Although it's true the white audience members weren't compelled to go onto the stage in the last scene, there was certainly a sense of obligation. I dutifully went up on the stage, and found it very uncomfortable (which was I assume was the point.) But the black people in the audience also seemed extremely ill at ease, with a big clump of white people staring at them. It's interesting that the Pulitzer committee, who awarded this play their award, only reads plays in their written form. They never actually see the play in action. I'm sure reading in the script that white audience members are expected to troop up on the stage has a different effect than actually participating in it. That said, there is a lot to admire in this play. But the thing I remember most is the segregation of the audience at the end. |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: davei2000 06:20 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
| In reply to: re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - hanon 03:05 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| What you say about the Pulitzer isn't so. Since Fairview ran in NY in 2018, and won the 2019 prize, I have no doubt all the theater people on the jury, who recommend the finalists, saw it. The board members who make the final decision, who are newspaper people, may not see everything, but there's no rule that they can't. Famously in 2010, the board refused the jury's nominees and gave the prize to Next to Normal, after a board member insisted they see it. | |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Posted by: TimDunleavy 01:12 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
| In reply to: re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - Shutterbug 01:10 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| Thank you. | |
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| re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) | |
| Last Edit: mikem 10:03 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
| Posted by: mikem 09:54 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
| In reply to: re: James Ijames-directed Fairview in Philadelphia (major spoilers) - TimDunleavy 01:12 pm EDT 06/20/22 | |
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| Hi Tim, Shutterbug's description is accurate for the Wilma production as well. You will have plenty of company if you decide not to do it at all, but if you decide to, you are doing the same thing that 200 other people are doing at the same time. None of the audience members are singled out in any way, and none of them are asked to speak, make gestures or do anything else except go up on stage as a group. It's not a whole lot different than a theater production where the cast leads you from room to room, except in this case only the white audience members are going up on stage. I'm finding the comments interesting about how the people of color in the audience were being stared at and under the microscope from the audience members on stage, so to speak. I mentioned before I saw Fairview late in the run in NY, so it was probably different from early experiences. There were a decent number of people of color in the audience, and the actress playing the teenage daughter came down from the stage and actually walked around in the audience seating area while giving the monologue. The attention was on her, not on what was happening on stage. I want to say at one point she was kind of at the far aisle so you weren't looking at the stage at all. My seat was very far back, and I did not feel stared at by the audience members on stage. I think if I had, I would not have felt comfortable with that, and it would have diminished the power of the piece for me. Of course, it's all open to interpretation, but from reading interviews with the playwright, I don't think her primary intent is to have the white audience on stage staring at the people of color in the audience seating area, although I think it's hard to avoid in the real world in a small theater. I think Fairview is about removing the white gaze from the POC, which is not accomplished when the POC audience members feel like they are still under the microscope, just from a different perspective. Jesse Green had an interesting article in the NY Times during the Brooklyn run where he talked about how, when he was on stage, the lights were shining in his eyes so he couldn't really see what was going on, and he couldn't hear the actress well because she was facing away from him, and he felt like the production was happening but the people on stage were being ignored and left out of the whole thing. Then he realized that was kind of the point. |
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