Personal Theatrical Musings on Performances

Thursday, April 15, 2010

"The Shipment" by Young Jean Lee's Theater Company at the Mueum of Contemporary Art on March 28th in Chicago, IL

"The Shipment" is a perplexing show that is highly entertaining, vexing, and clever. Although I never completely made sense of it, in fact maybe because I never made complete sense of it, it left me thinking for a long long time. The playwright, a young Korean American woman, says in her artist statement that she's writing about black identity-politics. Obviously a dangerous thing to do as a non African American but why not? The question is whether or not she's been successful in saying anything new and coherent.

The play is divided into four sections: the first is a dance performance that records various styles of African American vernacular movement; the second is a stand up routine by an African American comic; the third is a series of scenes about a black child who becomes a drug dealer, goes to jail, and makes it big as a hip hop artist; and the fourth is a 30th birthday party for a man who seems to have it all but wants to die and take his friends with him.

In the second section, the comic tells the audience that he's going to say confrontational things about racism and that they should leave if they don't like it. He conflates jokes about race and sex that cross the line of what's acceptable in a way that reflects the same line we often see real comics tow. He manages to go just over the line while most comics tend to step just on the line. The audience laughs for the most part, finding it unbelievable that they can experience such tasteless things funny. Near the end of the routine, he says that while white folks complain that black folks whine about race too much white people are the biggest whiners there are. "They whine by saying things like 'I had a terrible day at work today,' 'My job doesn't fulfill me.'" In other words, they complain about problems that many other people would be thrilled to have. They whine about the state of their existence rather than their existence. As a friend always says to me, those are high class problems to have.

The third section chronicles an African American boy's decent into drug dealing, his imprisonment, and his eventual rise as a rap star. The acting is highly stylized, as though middle school students were doing the acting. And every moment of the section is comprised of cliches -- about the violent schools that African Americans grow up in, their being coerced into dealing drugs and fighting with other drug lords, getting famous by rapping about killing cops, and getting rich and dating women who want to spend their money and demand sexual pleasure at the drop of a hat. While the second section left audience members perplexed, the third section left many people angry at this depiction of African Americans.

The final section is the only one that had a set. Five black folks are at a party celebrating a 30th birthday. Slowly, we realize that each person is a bit of a stock character and we notice increasingly that they're whining about the things that the comedian had joked that white people whine about. Eventually, the characters play a game called "library" and we realize that the black actors are playing white characters. During the game of "library" a woman writes a joke on a piece of paper that clearly titillates her but that she knows she shouldn't think is funny, thus mirroring the audience's feeling while watching the second section. When the characters read their racist jokes, the vegan in the group protests that he's uncomfortable playing the game and doesn't believe that they would be playing it if black people were present. One of the characters replies "Depends on what kind of black person it was." Of course, the truth of the matter is that black people are present (the actors, after all, are black) and one has to wonder what kind of people they are to be in such a play. The equivalent of the racist stereotypes recorded during the game "library" had been presented in the third section by black people and with black people present.

I talked with friends after the show who were incensed. They are the ones whom Young Jean Lee had invited to leave during the second section. I knew that I liked the play but I couldn't explain the apparent racism in it. I knew it was smart: the structure was tight, the dialogue clever. But I couldn't give an analysis that would appease my friends. Still, I felt that the play was alive, in a way that an August Wilson play isn't. Those plays are easy to like because we all agree on what is bad and what is good. Its themes reflect a past that we've struggled with and come to agreement on. This play seemed vital. I don't know if people would have found it less offensive had an African American written it. Maybe so. First voice and all. Either way, give me this over something that we've all come to agreement over.

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