David Mamet is known for crafting fragmentary street dialogue. But when appropriate, he can also be hyper-articulate, as he is in Race, with the ping-ponging smart, and often smart-ass language of the two law partners ― one white, one black ― considering how to defend an uber-wealthy client accused of raping a black woman in a hotel room. The incident has distinct echoes of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case which, of course, this play pre-dates.
The play, currently receiving a crisp, fast-paced production at GableStage, is shot full of cynicism. For if you cannot be cynical about the justice system, you probably are not trying. Guilt or innocence are virtually irrelevant to Jack Lawson (Gregg Weiner) and Henry Brown (Ethan Henry), who understand that the case will hinge on the prejudices and conclusion-jumping of the jury.
That would not be news to anyone who recalls the O.J. Simpson murder trial of almost 20 years ago. So Mamet tells a more interesting story, which pivots on a seemingly minor character, a young black female associate attorney in the tiny firm named simply Susan (Jade Wheeler).
Seemingly naïve, she makes a few tactical blunders early on which obligates Lawson and Brown to take the case, which they had determined was a lost cause. But like the secretary in Speed-the-Plow ― a play which has a lot of structural similarities to Race ― Susan will soon prove to be as wily as her bosses.
Race has some nice wry twists and more than a few acerbic one-liners about perceptions of color and racial inequities. And in the brisk production directed by Joseph Adler, many of those nuggets fly by so rapidly that you will probably want to seek out a copy of the script afterwards.
As usual, Adler’s casting instincts are impeccable. Weiner extends his winning streak with the company as button-down, caustic Lawson, showing off a polished verbal dexterity. He is well matched by Henry ― drastically different from his previous GableStage appearance in Motherf**ker with the Hat ― who is also adept at Race’s version of Mametspeak, but with a barely controlled veneer of anger.
If this production is an improvement over the 2009 Broadway show, it is because of Joe Kimble as wealth-has-privileges Charles Strickland, an underwritten role into which he breathes a palpable air of arrogance. And while she too has a less showy assignment, the play ultimately works because of the cool, steady contributions of Wheeler.
In recent years, GableStage has produced such lesser Mamet works as Romance and November. Race, however, shows the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright back at the top of his game, and so are Adler and company.
RACE, GableStage at the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables, through Sunday. Tickets $37.50–$50. Call: (305) 445-1119.
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Empire Stage, which is oriented towards gay-themed plays, has found a kindred spirit in playwright-director Kim Ehly, who premieres her audience-friendly, autobiographically inspired Baby GirL, at its tiny Fort Lauderdale space in a co-production with Ehly’s own Kutumba Theatre Project.
Much of the enjoyment of Baby GirL stems from Ehly’s sense of humor and from the central performance by Lindsey Forgey (previously seen in several musicals at Slow Burn Theatre). Here she both narrates and plays Ashley, an adopted South Florida moppet who discovers she is a lesbian, musters the courage to come out to her adoptive parents, then embarks on an odyssey to find her biological mother.
Although each of those events is related to us in a manner that traffics in clichés, we can sense Ehly’s winking awareness of stereotypical reactions, which encourages an audience to go along for the ride. Certainly this approach goes down more easily in the lightly comic first act than it does in the second, which flirts with melodrama.
The good news for Ashley is that her persistence pays off and she does locate her birth mom. The bad news for her ― and for the play ― is that the woman is bipolar and manipulative, a dramatically dangerous combination.
Still, Ehly is apparently intent on giving her tale a positive conclusion. That is her prerogative, of course, but the way she handles it so abruptly is not particularly persuasive.
Nevertheless, there is plenty to like about the first act, which relates Ashley’s life journey with occasional flights of fantasy. Ehly comes across as an even more assured director than playwright, moving the play along briskly and imaginatively, despite the limitations of the space.
Forgey understandably dominates the production, pulling theatergoers onto her side with tiny looks and comic takes. The rest of the company doubles and triples in roles, notably so with Sally Bondi as both of Ashley’s mothers and David R. Gordon as her dads. They are on firmer ground as the adoptive pair, struggling to deal with the news of their daughter’s sexual orientation. Bondi is overly strident as the birth mother, but the part is all but unplayable as written.
Baby GirL calls for a handful of supporting characters, all handled well enough by Nori Tecosky, Jessica Welch, Noah Levine and Clay Cartland, though none really has the versatility such assignments require. For that, they should study Miki Edelman, who changes a lot more than wigs sprinting through a number of older cameos.
Ehly is an accomplished actress in her own right, but she just may have found her calling as a director. And time will tell is she has another play as personal and personable as Baby GirL.
BABY GIRL, Kutumba Theatre Project at Empire Stage, 1140 N. Flagler Drive, Fort Lauderdale. Through Sunday. Tickets: $25. Call: (954) 678-1496.