State Theatre Company and La Boite Theatre Company. Space Theatre. 6 Jul 2016
First of all, I have to make a disclaimer: I am a straight white male, and according to New York playwright Young Jean Lee (Asian-American female of sexual orientation unknown to me), I come from a privileged background, and I think she wants to make my type feel pretty uncomfortable through watching this play, which I did. The Young Jean Lee Theatre Company's motto is "destroy the audience." After dealing with some of the issues of the play in my own life over a few days prior to opening night, and then watching this unraveling of a broken family of straight white men, I came out of the theatre feeling worse than when I went in, so tick, the play is a success.
Straight White Men is an excellent import product; an unadulterated example brought right to our door of the issues bearing on contemporary theatrical playwrights in that centre of English-language drama, the Big Apple. Young Jean Lee has been described as "the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation" by the New York Times, and in a bigger pond, was touted as "one of the best experimental playwrights in America" by Time Out New York.
The contrast of the beige living room of the comfortably well-off, where the action takes place, with blaring female rap music certainly gets you off balance from the start. We see three brothers approaching middle age, evidently gathered for Christmas cheer at Dad's house. Actors Chris Pitman, Lucas Stibbard and Hugh Parker present exuberant siblings used to shaming and rough housing each other without taking it too seriously. However, the potential for damage is so much greater when large male adults are doing the horsing around instead of kids, and this adds to the menace and tension in the setup of the narrative. They are pretty good dancers, to boot. Dad, played by veteran performer Roger Newcombe, seems to take it all in stride, and even when it goes to far, he simply goes to bed. Christmas is in name only.
After the fore play, when we are laughing at the strangeness and silliness of it all, but still disturbed with what is lacking - like Mom, table manners, and any real communication amongst the men - we get that something is really not right with one of the brothers, and Young Jean Lee has each of the others trying to fix him or explain it in their unique way. In doing so, themes of masculinity, socially advantaged privilege, not succeeding in life and what constitutes a good life are all explored. The saddest thing for me, though, was I saw a play about depression - what it's like to have it, and how people react to it, especially people who have no idea of what it feels like.
Director Nescha Jelk infused the production with plenty of energy and drive, and helped create distinct stereotypes with the players. The show began with a lengthy welcome to country by assistant director and stagehand-in-charge Alexis West - it is NAIDOC Week after all. Her ostentatious flare in resetting props for each act slowed things down, and her contribution to the production was confusing.
The Young Jean Lee Theatre Company's goal "is to find ways to get past our audience's defenses against uncomfortable subjects and open people up to confronting difficult questions by keeping them disoriented and laughing." Mission accomplished.
David Grybowski
When: 1 to 23 July
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
