Michelle Matlock, Director’s Note: “At it’s core, The Niceties is a powerful examination of the complexities surrounding race, power, privilege, and historical narrative. The play does not offer easy answers, instead, it raises critical, unresolved questions about our world.”
Laurie O’Brien plays Janine Bosko, a white American history professor. We first saw her as Gingy in “Love, Loss, & What I Wore.” Laurie plays a baffled professor trying to show the younger student the error of her ways.
Danielle Shope plays black college junior Zoe Reed. We just saw her in “Incorruptible”, the last production at Lakewood Playhouse. Student Danielle has the gumption to stand up opposing the attitude of her professor.
Zoe and Janine are at odds with each other. The play is done in the round with a chair and a desk in the middle of the stage. Book shelves are in corners and a painting of George Washington hangs on the wall.
Zoe Reed is a scholarship student at a prestigious university. She is a perceptive and powerful young black woman who has studied deeply and produced her own vision of racism in America. She has been asked to come to Janine Bosko’s office to discuss her latest paper. Her American history professor has said that she has not brought references to support her comments about American history that do not begin to carry the history of the slaves and workers, a large portion of the population at the beginning of the American nation. The dichotomy of the call for independence from the England did not bring any consciousness about the people of color or the native Americans in the colonies. The Declaration of Independence did not include people of color as a portion of the population. Indeed, they were not even considered as people there.
Zoe’s contentions are valid but Janine cries that there is no written evidence about this in any archives or books enrages her. The next part of the play is the discussion of how they can work out this dichotomy.
This is a concept that never even occurred to me. Wow, what a discovery! What a perceptive and provocative play. Please, go to see it.
The play is well worth the entertainment and the thoughtful impact it produces. The play runs through June 16 (just seven more performances). For tickets, contact theatre at 253-588-0042 or online at Website: lakewoodplayhouse.org
