Thursday, April 18, 2013

Race


This morning my son saw the playbill from last night's show and asked me what it was about, and after a moment I told him "It's about a man who hurts someone, and the other people have to decide what to do about it."  What Race is really about is a rich white man who is accused of sexually assaulting a black woman, and the three attorneys (two black, one white) who have to decide whether or not they'll represent him.
It's Mamet so it's intentionally provocative.  What I found really compelling was the idea of having a court room drama take place inside of the law office prior to a trial.  And because it's a hotbed subject and what's really on trial is our feelings on race, it ends up being that each of our characters takes a turn being the victim, the accused, the prosecutor, defendant, and judge.  I don't want to give away any details - I went into the play blind and I'm really glad that I did.  It's on in Toronto until May 5 and features a dynamite cast including Jason Priestley.  I can't say that I'm an expert on Mamet, but if this doesn't rank amongst his best, then I need to get myself out to the theatre far more often.

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