Friday, January 29, 2010
Feeling Unsettled At a Feel-Good Show
NYTimes.com: "“I KNOW there is nothing a white person can say to a black person about race which is not both incorrect and offensive,” James Spader’s hard-driving lawyer says in the new David Mamet play, “Race.” “I know that. Race is the most incendiary topic in our history. And the moment it comes out, you cannot close the lid on that box. That may change. But not for a long long while.”"
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2 comments:
Wow, this is a very interesting issue to read about. I have not had the chance to see this show yet, but from what I can gather of the show from video clips and pictures, Isherwood's likeness of the environment to a Disneyland interpretation of Africa certainly rings through. If the show was actually trying to say something, it would probably not cause the problems that Isherwood brings up, but as it is spectacle and a jukebox musical on top of that, it feels like it takes liberties with the costuming, audience interaction and weak-to-nonexistent plot that just break the show down.
I think that the point of a feel-good show especially a musical that involves African dance and music isn't exactly living its racial stereotype by seeming primitive or unsophisticated, it seems as though maybe the designer's intention was to create something very visually dynamic and aesthetically enthralling that the audience would relate to, clearly when shows are musicals especially this "carnivalesque" Broadway type musical the show isn't exactly going to be the most profound story with dimensional characters, but rather a piece of entertainment that resonates its controversial message with the audience without being too serious. Furthermore, although there may have been "an absence of staged narrative", the author agrees that the show was wildly entertaining. I remember reading an article that said cheap effects may not always be good for a show but a show that is good might resort to many flash and cheap effects and I completely agree.
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