A black conservative struggles
in
Gibbons' latest racial play
by Hedy Weiss, Theater Critic
published November 3, 2008
RECOMMENDED
As you read this, you might be preparing to vote for or against the first African-American nominee for president of the United States. This fact alone should make Thomas Gibbons' 2007 play "A House With No Walls" -- the third installment in his trilogy about matters of race in this country -- one of the more intriguing little experiments in audience reaction.
Will they hear the drama's arguments in a different way in the coming weeks depending on who is triumphant? Or will the play simply stand as a general summary of certain aspects of the whole long campaign and some of its more subtle but notably racially sensitive aspects -- everything from the Rev. Jesse Jackson's "off-mike" dissing of Barack Obama, to Obama's no-holds-barred comments about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to Obama's endorsement by former Republican standard-bearer Colin Powell, to Obama's oft-repeated mention of how crucial it is for parents to take charge of the educational and moral uplift of their own children?
"A House With No Walls," now in a solid TimeLine Theater production directed by Louis Contey, is not about an election campaign. But it IS deeply political as it poses such questions as: Who owns history? Can a historian write honestly about a culture not his or her own? Can an "outsider" perhaps say things that someone who is part of that culture might be intimidated about saying? And when does history become a self-defeating crutch?
Provocative? You bet -- just as Gibbons (who is white) managed to be in his earlier plays "Bee-luther-hatchee" (about authorship of a black slave memoir) and "Permanent Collection" (about the display of a museum's African art collection). Like those works, "A House With No Walls" spins off from a real controversy -- in this case the one sparked in Philadelphia in 2000 when the city began plans for its new Liberty Bell Center memorial to be administered by the National Park Service. Turns out the same location had earlier been the site of the slave quarters where President George Washington housed the nine slaves he had brought with him to the city when it served as the fledgling nation's temporary capital.
Gibbons flashes back to slave days, when Oney Judge (Leslie Ann Sheppard) and her brother, Austin (Eric Sherman-Christ), hope Washington will set them free, and when Oney, realizing he will not, finally makes the bold decision to escape with help from local Quaker abolitionists. At the same time he homes in on the highly politicized memorial being overseen by a former moderate Republican Congressman (Mark Richard) -- a man who has recruited a hot black conservative intellectual, Cadence Lane (Amber Starr Friendly), to become part of the advisory board, thereby helping assure funding from a right-wing senator who can make or break the deal.
Cadence, who has studied Oney's life, is in a no-win situation. She ends up going head-to-head with Salif Camara (A.C. Smith), a shrewd veteran civil rights activist she believes is stirring up public opinion on the issue primarily to keep himself in the spotlight. Trying to play "moderator" in the argument is Cadence's ex-lover, historian Allen Rosen (Steve O'Connell), who sees only the "gray areas" in every argument.
Cadence, the young, attractive black conservative -- a forceful, successful and also deeply isolated woman in many ways -- is Gibbons' most fascinating character, a kind of low-profile Condoleeza Rice. And Friendly does a first-rate job with her. Smith is all pumped-up "old school" street activist. Richard has the slickly maneuvering ways of a political pro. Sheppard and Sherman-Christ forge a potent sibling bond. And Collette Pollard's "footprint of the past" set design combines with Mike Tutaj's projections to evoke the ghosts of history.
Gibbons' multi-faceted arguments are thought-provoking though hardly unfamiliar at this point, but they serve as a fine, prosaic counterpoint to August Wilson's more poetic vision. And no matter how the 2008 election turns out, it wouldn't be at all surprising to learn the playwright has appended a fourth installment to his trilogy.
