May 23, 2008

'Harlem' comes to Stanford

By John Angell Grant / Theater Reviewer

Is interracial marriage a cop-out? That's one question posed in "Harlem Duet," and award-winning play by African-Canadian writer and actor Djanet Sears. Sears is teaching at Stanford University and is directing the show's West Coast premiere, a very good college production now running at Roble Studio Theater.

"Harlem Duet" was originally work-shopped at New York's Public Theater, before premiering in Toronto about 10 years ago.

Set in 1999, the play tells the story of Harlem resident and African-American Columbia University student Othello, who is in the process of divorcing his black wife to marry a white woman. Most of the play is about the anxiety and anger wife Billie feels about not just being abandoned, but abandoned for a white woman.

Set designer Eric Flatmo has contributed serious magic to this Peninsula production. His Harlem apartment kitchen captures the New York look very well, with yellow walls, orange and purple floor linoleum, and a mix of older and newer fixtures and furniture.
Periodically, designer Flatmo's set rotates on a large turntable, converting to a blacksmith's shop in 1860 or a Harlem vaudeville theater backstage in 1928. These scenes appear to be dreams and nightmares that Billie is having.

"Harlem Duet" is part chick play (love and romance), part African-American history and part revenge story. The name Othello references Shakespeare's play, and offers the notion that Billie is the black wife that Othello had before abandoning her to marry Desdemona. Though playwright Sears borrows some language from Shakespeare, the connection to Shakespeare's play turns out not to be that strong.

At the core of "Harlem Duet" is Billie's accusation that Othello is abandoning black women, the black race and his black identity. Columbia student Othello counters that he is moving beyond his blackness to his humanness.

Under the pressure of debate, he admits that he finds white women easier to live with than black women, who want him to be the target of centuries of their anger.

The main limitation of "Harlem Duet" is a shortage of story. It replaces story with didactic social observations. The character of Billie is also problematical. Her strong political positions deteriorate into socio-pathology, creating an uncertainty about who she is that weakens her as a dramatic force.

A final scene about personal values of love and hate introduces huge themes at the last moment, almost as an afterthought, but doesn't allow them adequate opportunity to develop. A key concluding plot point is left for the audience to guess at.

As the director, playwright Sears opens the show with a beautiful dream, as the actors slowly assemble on stage to the distant sound of Martin Luther King's famous speech. Soon a handkerchief (that false betrayal motif in Shakespeare's play) floats slowly from the rafters down onto the stage.

Sears has cast the show well, with a mix of student and professional performers. Aleta Hayes is one of the pros as Billie's friend and landlady, although she plays a woman perpetually on an unsuccessful hunt for a man, which seems off-key for her smart and prosperous character.

The other performers include Olivia Harewood (Billie), Douglas A. Jones Jr. (Othello), Tracy Oliver and Donell Hill. When sitting at the kitchen table and facing away from the audience, the student performers need to project more loudly.

At the side of the stage, a cellist (Jason Robinson) and upright bassist (Kurt Loidl and Tim Wang in alternating performances) give the show a moody, effective live acoustic soundtrack.

Despite its limitations, "Harlem Duet" is a thought-provoking show, and a rare chance to see a play of some note, which won a major Canadian award, but which has not been performed before on the West Coast.

Rating: Three stars

E-mail John Angell Grant at jagplays@yahoo.com.