Ross Zentner
What if prejudice against dark-skinned people was genetically programmed in Caucasians? What if racism was hard-wired, instead of a conditioned response created and perpetuated by white society? What if scientific proof existed that this was the case and no one wanted to accept it? These are some of the questions Lydia Diamond raises in her issue-packed play Smart People, running through March 13 at University Theatre.
The story focuses on the intersection of four people connected with Harvard University; Jackson, an African-American medical resident; Brian, a white professor and researcher who is trying to prove his theory about the origins of racism; Ginny, an Asian psychology professor with a shopping obsession; and Valerie, an African-American actor who has just received her MFA and is struggling to find work onstage that will pay her bills. These four people are each intelligent, passionate, accomplished and angry. By turns, they are also the victims and perpetrators of both racism and sexism that is either malicious, unconscious, integral to our DNA, or part of a much more complicated and nuanced problem.
Valerie (a pitch-perfect Aaliyah Boyd) is accused of not being “black enough” both at theater auditions and on her date with Jackson. The smug, abrasive professor, Brian (Daniel Millhouse) rails against his white liberal colleagues for defunding his research, but then invokes white privilege when he feels betrayed. He’s forced to question his own biases when he falls into bed with Ginny (a compelling Lucy Tan), who asserts her authority by yelling at customer service representatives at high-end clothing stores. She counsels young Asian women on how to better navigate a system that exoticizes or ignores them, but avoids real contact with others by paying constant attention to her phone. Jackson (Cyle Agee) feels he’s being hazed during his residency and undermined by other doctors because he’s African American. But Brian, perhaps rightly, accuses him of embodying the stereotype of an “angry black man with a chip on his shoulder.”
Perhaps the most debilitating problem each of them faces is their inability to effectively communicate or connect with one another. Snap judgments are made. Identities are mistaken. Conversations are clipped and one-sided. The speakers are constantly being challenged or interrupted. Some scenes include several conversations going on at once, which makes them more fraught and difficult to understand. The play actually repeats the beginning scene late in the second act — an interesting device so audience members can compare their initial perceptions of each character with a second viewing, after we learn each character’s back story. But at the exact moment when Americans could claim they have moved beyond racial bias – President Obama’s first inauguration – two of the characters talk only about the clothes and surface appearance of the first family on cell phones that are constantly disconnecting. It is a sad commentary on a lost opportunity.
The set, designed by Shuxing Fan, does a good job of placing characters in many distinct locales and keeping the scenes decidedly separate. Unfortunately, the time it takes to add or remove set pieces between scenes or wait for light cues to come up slows down the pace of the play. A large projection screen behind the set is used to great effect when cycling through pictures of people of many races to provoke reactions from research test subjects and from the audience itself. But the photos of each scene’s locale are unnecessary and intrusive. A video of swirling colors between scenes seems especially out of place.
Overall the cast, ably directed by Chuck Smith, does a good job of handling the many layers of misunderstanding and confrontation in the play, as they all grapple with their own prejudices and the effects those beliefs have on others. Like the problem of racism itself, there are no easy answers in the play. But there is much discussion, and that is a great place to start.
