Theater review part deux: If By Chance

by Richard Goulde of John Garcia's The Column

The playbill describes the story as a "drama about a biracial college student who strives to be judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin." An apt description, but it glosses over the true tension in the story. Chance (Cameron Law) is struggling with his racial identity. His mother felt he would be more successful in life if he assimilated into white society, but in college he meets Truth (Perri Camper), a young woman proud of her African-American heritage, who tries to cultivate Chance's racial self-awareness.

I love the multi-layered thematic depth of this show. It asks so many smart questions and recognizes that the issues of prejudice and identity are not simple. For example, it looks at the ways in which prejudice can be internalized. The story also asks, can the drive to fight prejudice inadvertently perpetuate it? What an interesting idea.

Truth advocates not for a homogenous, "melting pot" view of society but rather a "stew pot" which values diverse components retaining their own distinctive flavor. Yet, rooted in idealism and conviction, does she unwittingly maintain the same prejudices by inverting them?

It reminds me of the funny song "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" from the musical Avenue Q:

"No one's really color blind.

Maybe it's a fact

We all should face

Everyone makes judgments

Based on race."

Meanwhile, Chance has internalized his prejudice. His mother inculcated in him the belief that he could not be truly successfully as a black man, but instead he would have to pass as white despite the color of his skin. But how can he ignore his color when no one else does? That's the conflict in this story.

In watching the play I couldn't help but think about my white privilege. We live in a society that favors white skin, but most white people are completely unaware of the ways in which they have advantages over people of different colors. But the funny thing about privilege is that it's like playing rock-paper-scissors. There are many different kinds of privilege - male privilege, wealth privilege, age privilege, straight privilege - and everyone enjoys one kind or another in different situations.

I also resonate with the idea of internalized prejudice and the ways in which it can poison a person's identity and self-value, and then wreck havoc through that person. For example, I know racism is still dismayingly present in the gay community. You'd think a population that suffers its own prejudice, discrimination and hatred would know better. But it's hard not to internalize homophobia when it's force-fed to us from a young age, and perhaps sometimes a side-effect of internalized prejudice is the tendency to over-embrace whatever kind of privilege one does possess.

If you can't tell - I love theater that makes me think, and If By Chance succeeds in spades in that regard. In other ways, it's not so successful.

The performance is a series of moving, heartfelt and occasionally funny interactions between the characters. Most of those scenes convey such raw honesty that they completely absorb my attention. But they're linked by interludes that flirt with abstract or avant-garde conventions.

Avant-garde theater can create an amazingly powerful experience. By its nature, it's difficult to process that kind of presentation in an intellectual way. As a result it can hit you right in the gut and elicit a visceral, emotional reaction. But it's difficult to achieve, and when it fails, it creates the opposite reaction: disengagement and audience alienation.

Only one of the (many) interludes hits it. It comes during the second act as a "mash-up" with a psychologist (Janis Roscoe) speaking about Freudian principles, interspersed with poetry from the Poet (Thomas Mosely). I've heard one definition of genius as the ability to see relationships between unrelated concepts; I love mash-ups like this one because they force me to see a conceptual pairing I've never considered.

Unfortunately, the rest of those interludes don't achieve the desired result, which has two consequences.

First, it creates an odd and uncomfortable rhythm to the play. A powerful scene in which the audience would be fully invested and engaged would be followed by a scene which makes me question, "Is this ever going to end?" Wash, rinse and repeat. It's like that throughout the entire two-hour show. Second, these interludes make the play way too long. They contribute some value to that thematic depth I love so much, but they not only pass the point of diminishing returns, they hit the gas pedal at that point.

I have heard the following quote attributed to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch: "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscripts to press. Murder your darlings." ( The same advice, using similar phrasing, has also been attributed to William Faulkner).

Playwright Donnie Wilson demonstrates his ability to write smart, powerful and dramatic scenes. He also manages a clever turn of phrase, which I always enjoy. But he would do well to listen to Sir Arthur - this play needs the fat trimmed. Badly.

It's the principal actors who really bring the story to life, though. The acting throughout the play ranges from barely passable to exceptional. Thankfully, the leads - Cameron Law as Chance and Perri Camper as Truth - are two of the strongest performers, and they imbue their characters and scenes with energy and depth. In fact, the play actually begins with one of those interludes I mentioned, and it isn't until Truth steps on stage to engage Chance in conversation that the story really gets my attention.

I do have the sense most of the actors could have used another rehearsal or two - lots of verbal miscues - but I am impressed with Law and Camper, as well as Lisa B. Whitfield (Stella) and Monique Vasquez (Celeste), all of whom perform well in emotionally-charged roles. Law in particular gives a wonderful performance in a soliloquy that demonstrates the destructive impact of the conflict between his mother's emphasis on assimilating & Truth's pride in racial identity.

The staging is quite clever. They make good use of a limited space which must stand-in for at least half a dozen or more locales. I also appreciate the attention to detail - the way characters express emotion through removing a prop from stage, for example. Director Bill Fountain pays attention to nuance, but he also needs to get his cast moving at a snappier pace. The director has the ability to compensate (or help, anyways) for self-indulgent scenes in a script, and I wish he had done more in that regard. Or - scarier still - I wonder if he did? Yikes.

Overall it's mixed: thought-provoking, moving and sometimes even laugh-out-loud funny; but your fanny is sure going to be glad to get out of that seat once the play is over.

If By Chance runs through March 15 at the Bishop Arts Theater Center. Purchase tickets online.