SPARKING A SMART DISCUSSION
Play examines racism and sexism without wagging its finger at you
SMART PEOPLE When: Starts Friday, until Nov. 18, 8 p.m. Where: Studio 16 Tickets and info: $26-$31 at mitchandmurrayproductions.com
In the Lydia R. Diamond-penned play Smart People, four, well, smart people are faced with the undeniable nature of racism and sexism.
While, sadly, this is a play for our immediate times, it is set during the 2008 run-up to Barack Obama’s presidency. Neuroscientist Brian (Aaron Craven) is studying the brain’s responses to race and what that means to society. His findings are controversial. Ginny (Tricia Collins), a psychiatrist, is looking at how stress affects poor Asian-American women.
Jackson (Kwesi Ameyaw), a doctor, has opened a clinic for lowincome patients and actor Valerie (Katrina Reynolds) is struggling and has to work part-time jobs including cleaning houses.
Set in Cambridge, Mass., in the shadow of Harvard University, the smart people are busy chasing professional and personal goals. However, no matter how hard they try they cannot avoid race and identity politics. This despite the widespread hope that Obama will mark the start of a post-racial America.
“Now that seems like a fairy tale and/or a wonderful nostalgia,” said play director David Mackay looking back to the first African-American president’s tenure. “It does have a haunting resonance today.”
First performed in 2014 in Boston, Diamond’s Smart People struck actor Reynolds as soon as she read the script. Like her character Valerie, she, too, has felt the sting of racism and has done her fair share of crummy jobs to bankroll her creative dreams.
“The words just jump off the page and fit in your mouth,” the Vancouver-based Reynolds said. “The way she writes the dialogue. It seems so natural. It’s exciting. I thought: I need to be part of this.”
While it is set in a more halcyon time in American politics, Smart People’s point is just as sharp as the tiki torch flames of racism sadly still burning bright.
“It is so relevant right now and it is exactly what we need to be talking about,” Reynolds said. “It doesn’t happen very often where theatre comes along and you get a chance to audition for something and you get a chance to promote a dialogue about race and gender and create a discussion through theatre.”
With news channels and social media awash with Trump Twitter tirades, alt-right voices screaming nativist nonsense and powerful men trying to hide predatory pasts, it’s understandable many people are feeling overwhelmed by all the disappointing noise.
Mackay understands we are a news-saturated society but he feels this topical play, produced here by Mitch and Murray Productions, still remembers, through great dialogue and some humour, that its purpose is to entertain.
“I think there is entertainment in the story,” Mackay said. “I think that is important to us. It has to be an interesting piece of theatre and not a didactic finger wagging at the audience, which this piece never does.
“Ideally, if we get you into the theatre you are kind of watching this play and you are getting involved, but you’re also seeing a true human interaction. A discussion of racism that I wouldn’t say is anything brand new but it’s in a perspective where you go ‘oh gosh.’”
Reynolds said the content of the play is strong but not singleminded. It doesn’t shout at the audience but, she says, it instead nudges viewers to maybe be a little more self-aware.
“The show isn’t beating it over the head. It’s just there and you are aware of it, but it is still entertaining,” Reynolds said, referring to the overarching theme of racism. “It’s not trying to have you leave the theatre with one message in mind. It’s leaving the theatre with a soundboard to start to discuss and have your own opinions about it. How does it make you feel? That’s what good theatre does.”