Cast of Race
I am a fan of David Mamet though it does seem like he never veers off his tried and true writing formula. There is no great revelation if you have seen a few of his shows. One can predict how it is all going to go down and that is precisely what happened for me during the Canadian Stage production of Race.
The title is pretty self-explanatory. Race is about race relations and the viewpoints that continue to keep many divided. The storyline is about a white man accused of raping a black woman. He seeks representation from a stellar law team comprised of two lawyers, one black, one white and a black female intern.
I was curious to see Jason Priestley perform the role of the tough as nails lawyer, Jack Lawson. It is always interesting to see if film and television personalities are going to pass the true test of acting, to successfully deliver on stage. For the most part, I found him solid in his role. He got off to a rocky start as his rhythm wasn’t quite there and I could really hear an actor delivering dialogue rather than a character expressing his next thought. After several minutes, this did smooth out and for the most part I enjoyed watching his performance.
Nigel Shawn Williams delivered the performance of the night. His take on Henry Brown was electrifying. His characterization was risky and never quite in control.
The other two characters were problematic. Cara Ricketts did the best she could with a role that quite frankly is no different than most of Mamet’s women (it bears a striking resemblance to Karen in Speed the Plow). I have grown a bit weary of how he writes for women. They are simplistic and drawn with broad, ridiculous strokes (stupid, naïve, manipulative and overly sexualized). Mamet never seems to find the nuance of his characters, men or women.
Matthew Edison rounds out the cast as Charles Strickland. He has the least amount of stage time yet the drama centers around his character. It would have been interesting had the playwright utilized him a bit more. There were unnecessary gaps in the script that could have easily been filled with a deeper exploration of his character.
My biggest criticism of the acting was that some of the moments when characters lashed out in anger seemed forced and contrived. It was almost as though they had been directed to be angry on certain lines and the actors did not find the build up for those moments so they came out of nowhere. There was a lot of banging on the table and raging by the water cooler.
The set seemed a bit too expansive somehow with a boardroom table in the middle, a desk on one side, a seating area on the other side and rows of filing cabinets that reached to the ceiling. Because of the subject matter, I wonder if it would have been more effective to have a contained, almost claustrophobic set and have all the action take place around the boardroom table with no escape for the characters.
I am left with the fact that Mamet may be all show and no soul. His plays always seem to work on some level, perhaps because of how he writes dialogue, but the characters always end up being cold and emotionless. Daniel Brooks directs a competent production. It is a good night out at the theater with no glaring problems but it also didn’t leave me wanting to jump out of my seat.
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