“Trouble in Mind’s” irreverence must have seemed like a fairly cold slap to mainstream audiences back in the 1950s, at the infancy of the civil rights movement. The work is, of course, a slice of theatrical life as an emblem of the state of American race relations, a portrait of the psychological segregation being practiced even among enlightened people. It is, I think, one of the best plays about racism ever written. On the subject of the shameful niche to which black actresses were consigned, the play is scathingly funny, with bitterness-tinged allusions to sharecroppers and maids and the names their characters were given — always, confoundingly, after flowers (such as “Petunia”) or jewels (“Ruby”).
Childress’s play begins as Broadway rehearsals start for “Chaos in Belleville,” which concerns the uproar in a small Southern town over the bold decision by the black military-bound character portrayed by Dirden’s John to enrage local whites and cast his vote in an upcoming election. Though the plot seems crafted to elicit the sympathy of liberal white theatergoers — “Dynamic subject,” the shallow director mutters condescendingly, “hard to come to grips with on the screen, TV, anywhere” — the unseen, presumably white playwright doles out to black actors the same offensive sorts of roles they’ve always had to play.
Video
E. Faye Butler stars in Arena Stage's newest production about a newly integrated 1957 theater company performing in a misguided Broadway play.
The piece weaves an elegant latticework as it exposes the characters’ attitudes and biases. The crux, however, is in how much humiliation Wiletta is willing to swallow in playing as written the terrified mother of the young man who wants to vote. And though in Wiletta’s confrontation with her director, Childress looks too melodramatically for a villain, she’s an astute observer of human behavior in general, and actors in particular. To her credit, she gives Lodge’s Al his due as a realist, with a speech about the limits of how much truth the ticket-buying public is ready to digest.
Butler, who until recently played Aunt Eller to robustly folksy success in Arena’s revival of “Oklahoma!,” does Childress’s character proud. Wiletta is in almost as much need of consciousness-raising as the least racially sensitive of the white characters, a clueless older actor played by Daren Kelly. Butler’s endearingly accessible portrayal gets us on Wiletta’s side as she eventually arrives at her valuable self-discovery about how far she’s come as a black woman and an actress.
It’s not often you find a work with as much to say and as little renown as “Trouble in Mind,” which is not so much a lost play as one that has suffered from a woeful lack of attention. Lewis and Arena here demonstrate why the string on that bare light bulb in America’s dramatic attic is sometimes well worth a tug.
Trouble in Mind
by Alice Childress. Directed by Irene Lewis. Lighting, Rui Rita and Carl Faber; sound, David Budries; hair and makeup, Jon Carter. With, Garrett Neergaard and T. Anthony Quinn. About 2 hours 15 minutes. Through Oct. 23 at Arena Stage, 1011 Sixth St. SW. Visit www.arenastage.org or call 202-488-3300.
_1337038921.jpg)
Loading...
Comments