Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession
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So credit is certainly due Lookingglass, and particularly director David Schwimmer, for using his celebrity, the company’s high-profile new space, and Terkel’s iconic status to explore a topic no one wants to discuss. Because we clearly still need to do something about racism: no sooner had the lights gone up at intermission after a seriocomic explanation of how the Puerto Ricans are the niggers of the Latino community and the Irish the niggers of Europe than the man behind me was fuming, “Why do they always pick on the Irish?” Though the point had been made explicitly that it shouldn’t be an insult to be compared to black people–“Why are the niggers always on the bottom?” asks an African-American character–he was immediately up in arms over just that comparison. So while I shake my head sagely and ask why we’re still talking about racism, it’s worth noting that we still need to talk about it. Needing isn’t the same as wanting, however: 48 hours after opening night, in the heart of the Michigan Avenue tourist district, on the very day a full-length profile of Schwimmer appeared in the Tribune magazine, there were quite a few empty seats.
OK, fine, painful subject; that doesn’t invalidate its examination, as Long Day’s Journey Into Night makes manifest. What matters is the approach, and here–despite earnestness to spare and the whole bag of Lookingglass tricks–Race disappoints. If goodwill were all it took to conquer racism or make art about it, this production and our society would be home free. But a problem this intractable requires a different mode of understanding. Terkel’s tales of personal transformation, faithfully adapted by Schwimmer and Joy Greg-
The show’s 12 cast members–Tony Fitzpatrick stands out as the reformed Klansman–make it a pleasure to watch. And despite Schwimmer’s overearnestness as an adapter, he has a light directorial touch, facilitating the actors’ transitions between monologue and dialogue, realistic scenario and theatrical presentation, humor and rage. These multiple approaches provide a real feel for the many dimensions of the problem.
