One sharp playwright, Neil LaBute specializes in contemporary dramas about flawed people behaving badly, especially in matters regarding sex and race.
Produced by the St. Louis Actors’ Studio, the LaBute New Theater Festival, which just opened at the Davenport Theatre, offers a trio of character studies.
From the milder than typical tone of these plays—two monologues plus a two-hander—LaBute appears to be writing in something of a defensive mode these days. During the course of each piece, somebody observes, “The truth will set you free.”
[Read Elysa Gardner’s ★★★ review here.]
The circumstances for such utterances are ironic, but the repetition suggests that LaBute wants to remind ultra-sensitive audiences that his plays do not represent his views, but rather illuminate the dark truths lurking within the dubious characters he fashions.
The most provocative work opens the bill: The Fourth Reich presents the remarks of a pleasant apologist for Adolf Hitler. Enacted by Eric Dean White in a low-keyed, conversational manner, Karl is a nicely-dressed American of the Baby Boom generation, who speaks directly to the audience.
“You get to write history when you win,” says Karl, asserting that the worst thing Hitler ever did was lose World War II. “And that’s what’s happened in the case of Hitler.”
Making scant references to the Holocaust (“The Jew thing, definitely goes in the ‘cons’ column, if we’re doing that, pros and cons …”), Karl dwells mostly upon Hitler’s positive achievements for Germany during the 1930s. Karl also casually notes that mass genocide has been waged by leaders all over the world, including North America.
It turns out that Karl’s concern for Hitler’s reputation likely stems from an incident in Karl’s childhood. “Should I be tossed out in the garbage ‘cause of one bad thing I did, years ago, when I was a kid?” he demands. This personal revelation, only scarcely detailed, accounts for Karl’s defense of Hitler’s name even as it mitigates somewhat the creepy nature of his remarks. It also is unclear as to whom Karl is speaking, much as the actor frequently makes eye contact with viewers.
The monologue that ends the program, Unlikely Japan, is delivered by Katie, who anxiously tries to explain to a friend why she feels more bad than sad upon hearing of the death of a man she dated in high school some ten years earlier. That the man died amid the dozens who perished in the Las Vegas massacre of 2017 is practically incidental to Katie’s greater regrets over the way she carelessly betrayed his love for her. Often biting on her lower lip, Gia Crovatin nicely implies the self-absorbed Katie’s present anxiety even as she also conveys her thoughtless younger self.
A prickly little comedy, Great Negro Works of Art observes a dating app encounter between Jerri (Brenda Meaney), who is white, and Tom (KeiLyn Durrel Jones), a man of color, who meet up in an art gallery. Their initially awkward conversation increasingly grows uneasy as Jerri blithely tries to conceal her ignorance of African-American culture. For a while, Tom tolerates Jerri’s gaffes. He even notes, “People are just way too sensitive today. About … you know … everything. Feminist stuff and race stuff and, and … all of it.” Eventually Tom feels compelled to call Jerri out, only to be challenged in return about his knowledge of white artists. The more the characters’ defenses go up and the sharper they speak to each other, the funnier the comedy becomes until it breaks off.
Meaney and Jones strike sparks of laughter under the direction of John Pierson, who also staged The Fourth Reich. LaBute himself directed Unlikely Japan, which is the gentlest play in the program. Design is sparse but sufficient. Megan Harshaw’s costumes provide insights to the characters, such as the Colin Kaepernick T-shirt that Tom sports on his frustrating date with Jerri.
Curiously enough, one can’t help but notice that much as the playwright strives to present what he sees as the truth within his characters, the two women he creates here are not as self-aware as the men, even though one of these guys advocates for Hitler.
The LaBute New Theater Festival opened January 14, 2019, at the Davenport Theatre and runs through January 27. Tickets and information: telecharge.com
