America is currently at war with itself over who constitutes the haves and have-nots, and what ethnic groups have faced the most discrimination.
James Ijames’ 2017 play “White” doesn’t address the current situation, but this sharp, funny and surprisingly timely play at Scripps Ranch Theatre, does gives it a good poke in the ribs.
Ijames won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his Broadway play “Fat Ham,” a hilarious comedy that blended Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” with the story of contemporary gay Black man pondering his existence at a family barbecue in the American South. “White” has similar elements, with a gay White man pondering his career as an artist, a touch of the supernatural and a lots of laughs.
Yolanda Marie Franklin, who heads San Diego’s Common Ground Theatre, directs “White” with wonderful nuance, humor and humanity. As surreal and wacky this play gets, you can relate to her characters and always feel their beating hearts.
The play is about Gus, a successful but never-satisfied artist who devises a scheme to get his paintings into a museum exhibit reserved for “new voices” in the visual arts (translation: anyone but White men). With spiritual guidance from his “inner Black diva,” a saintly Diana Ross who appears to Gus in a vision, he recruits a fame-seeking young actress, Vanessa, to pose as Balkonaé, a proud Black artist who will actually be submitting his paintings. Their ruse fools the museum’s White curator, Jane, but it comes at a great cost for Gus, his relationship with his husband, Tanner, and especially Vanessa/Balkonaé.
Joey Landwehr is funny, sensitive and comically neurotic as the self-absorbed Gus, who quickly gets in over his head with the art scam. Mysia Anderson makes a very impressive San Diego debut as Vanessa, Balkonaé and St. Diana. She takes Vanessa on a wonderful arc of self-discovery and emerging pride as she transforms into Balkonaé, but she ultimately loses herself in more ways than one.
Noelle Caliguri is very tart, funny and smug as the ambitious and overweening museum curator Jane. A sincere Kevin Phantom completes the cast as Tanner, an Asian gay man who discovers ugly truths about his husband’s unspoken prejudices.
The 90-minute play features some fun costumes for Balkonaé, sound by Ted Leib and lighting by Deanna Trethewy. Scenic and props designer Duane McGregor has created a mostly white bare stage, filled with empty picture frames, a commentary on the superficiality and subjectivity of art when it’s viewed from different perspectives. In this play’s dark final scene at the museum show, both art and people become commodities.
“White” covers a lot of ground, perhaps not all of it comfortable for straight White audiences, which is much of Scripps Ranch Theatre’s audience. But this is a play definitely worth seeing. It’s smart, well-staged and it uncovers, with deep humor, many truths about our society.
‘White’
When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through March 9
Where: Scripps Ranch Theatre at Legler Benbough Theatre, Alliant International University, 9783 Avenue of Nations, San Diego
Tickets: $29-$49
Info: 858-395-0573
Online: scrippsranchtheatre.org
