Attitudes about race from both sides of the fence expose themselves in Race, David Mamet’s play at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.
The structure is simple: a single set with four characters and an unseen fifth character, a red-sequined dress that the audience only sees on the cover of their Playbill.
The action takes place in an austere, book-lined room in a law firm. The law partners, one black, one white, played by Dennis Haysbert and Eddie Izzard, are deciding whether to take the case of Charles Strickland (Richard Thomas), a rich, white man accused of raping a black woman in a hotel room.
The lawyers’ approach is rational: can they win? What isn’t the client telling? Why did he dismiss his first lawyer? Or did the first lawyer dismiss him? Then back to the question, can they win?
The young and pretty junior lawyer who witnesses their debate interferes in the action making a seemingly novice mistake. Susan’s actions take the play from the surface racial questions to unmasking the deep prejudices within all four characters.
Afton Williamson gives a powerful performance as Susan, the role originated by Kerry Washington. The demure Susan of Act 1 morphs into an angry, vengeful, yet naive, character at the play’s end.
Henry Brown (Dennis Haysbert), is a world-weary realist yet commands the stage in a way his partner should have but couldn’t. Partner Jack Lawson (Eddie Izzard of whom I am a big fan), performed well as the hyper, type-A, star lawyer but didn’t have the presence of the other three actors.
Finally, Richard Thomas (Charles Strickland) will forever be John-Boy Walton to me and I apologize to Mr. Thomas for that. But John-Boy has made good on Broadway and doesn’t give away his guilt or innocence.
Like all Mamet’s work, the play is powerful and lingers in your mind long after the curtain has gone down.
I saw both casts of RACE and found both to be good, but James Spader and David Alan Grier were excellent. Spader commanded the stage as did Grier, both men are terrific theatre actors. I was disappointed that Izzard did not have a stronger stage presence and was very surprised by it. On the day I saw the work with Haysbert he was still a little rocky with the dialogue and made a few errors. Afton C. Williams was excellent and her performance is better than Kerry Washington’s. An interesting point for me is that one of the best performances I saw was between casts when the show starred James Spader, Ray Anthony Thomas (the understudy), Afton C. Williams, and Richard Thomas; that was an excellent cast and an excellent performance.
So you’ve seen RACE at least three times. I’m impressed. Do you plan to see his new one “Theatre”?
Yes, I am hoping to see “Theatre”. I saw Patrick Stewart back in ’81 at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. It will be interesting to see him again on stage almost 30 years later.