Jason Priestley, Cara
Ricketts and Nigel Shawn Williams in RACE. Photo by David Hou.
Reviewed by James Karas
Canadian Stage has
brought David Mamet’s Race for its premiere
production in Toronto at the Bluma Appel Theatre. As its title states, the play
is about racism in America, perhaps the single most destructive force in that
country. The play is supposed to examine the subject afresh in a searing
fashion but we get little more that some talking heads parading familiar views.
The plot and
structure of the play which opened in New York in 2009 are pretty straightforward.
Charles Strickland (Matthew Edison), a rich white man, is charged with raping a
young, black woman. He has difficulty finding a lawyer who will take his case
but there are two legal stars in town who will take him on, reluctantly. Jack
Lawson (Jason Priestly), a white lawyer and the aptly named Henry Brown (Nigel
Shawn Williams), a black man, will represent him.
Our credulity is
strained quickly. A wealthy man cannot find a lawyer for a sensational case?
All he has to do is wave his cheque book and the lineup will start forming.
Lawson and Brown have
a young and pretty black woman lawyer named Susan (Cara Ricketts) who lied on
her job application. She stated that she had gone to Venice on a trip to Italy
while she had in fact only visited Rome! Now that is pretty serious stuff.
Lawson had investigated her before hiring her and that is what he had come up
with.
We are faced with a
seriously artificial and credulity-straining situation and the arguments about
racism and relationships among the three lawyers will revolve around the
revelations about the alleged rapist’s actions and the police investigation.
In the opening scene
the duty of a lawyer representing person charged with a crime is set out fairly
accurately. The lawyer assumes that his client is not guilty and within
well-established rules puts forth the best arguments on his behalf. Whether the
lawyer believes his client’s guilt or innocence is irrelevant. The lawyer is an
advocate; not a judge.
Lawson, Brown and
Susan forget those fundamental principles fairly quickly and seem to worry
about the guilt or innocence of their client. At one point Lawson even asks Charles
“did you do it?” A second-rate lawyer would never ask that question, let alone a star defender. Whether the accused did
it or not is irrelevant. The question is: can the prosecution prove its case
beyond a reasonable doubt. If it can, the accused is convicted; if it cannot,
he walks away.
One of Mamet’s points in the play is that if a white man were charged with rape fifty years ago, he would have been found not guilty. Same facts today and he is convicted. The evidence has not changed but the calendar, according to Mamet, has changed. Are we to take this as a leap forward in American justice, that white rapists are being finally convicted of heinous crimes that they would have gotten away with half a century ago? I doubt it.
Edison is not
particularly convincing as the wealthy, white man who is a potential or falsely
accused rapist. He is rather bland and more of a convenient tool for the
arguments of the play than a real person.
Priestly must be a big
drawing card for Canadian Stage. He does a decent job of presenting Mamet’s
arguments but falls short of generating any legal, political or social sparks.
Brown is not a
particularly taxing role for Williams and the same applies to Ricketts. Saying
that an actor makes a role look easy may be taken as a compliment to the actor
if not necessarily to the author.
Daniel Brooks directs
the pay as strictly instructed by Mamet’s direction to follow the script
closely. Every author has the right to jealously protect his work but Mamet’s
attempts go beyond that into a display of sheer arrogance. The script contains
a laughable Talkback Restriction which forbids any discussion of the play until
two hours after the performance. It imposes a $25.00 penalty as reasonable
compensation for the actual damage which David Mamet will suffer from a
violation of the Talkback Restriction. This may well be said tongue-in-cheek
but I doubt it. The clause is clearly drafted by a lawyer and a touch of
humility on the part of Mamet may be more a propos than the legal mumbo-jumbo
of the Restriction. The tired arguments presented by the play are forgotten
even before the two-hour limitation period expires and there is little danger
of any burning desire for “discussion of any type related to the Play.”
______
Race by David Mamet will
run from April 7 to May 5, 2013 at
the Bluma Appel Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East , Toronto ,
Ontario
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