Educating our youngsters — deciding what and what not to teach them — is a very serious matter. But apparently that news never made its way to playwright Idris Goodwin. For he has taken the subject of education in America today and turned it on its ear, examining the matter from an absurdist perspective in a jaunty little comedy called What’s Best for the Children, now enjoying its world premiere at Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab.
The tug-of-war over public school curriculum is depicted from the viewpoint of Whit Forsyth (Isaac Simmons), the newly elected chairman of an unspecified state school board, the first African-American to hold that highly pressurized post. He is facing a couple of crucial decisions on the education agenda, which draw lobbyists from several sides of the issues, trying to influence him. They insist that they know how he expects to vote, which Whit says is impossible since he doesn’t even know.
Among the influencers are a couple of hooded hip-hop abductors, who arrive out of nowhere to tase and kidnap Whit in order to persuade him to vote their way. That is bad enough, but Whit’s troubles are just beginning. Over the course of the day, he will be kidnapped three times by three different factions on the education spectrum.
Goodwin clearly wants us to consider how gravely our curriculum decisions have gone off the tracks, but first he wants to earn our attention with humor. His meta script never lets us forget that we are watching a play, one which pauses occasionally to ask the audience quiz questions on the material they have just been exposed to. (Answer sheets and pencils provided as you enter the theater.)
In addition to Simmons, there is a five-member cast with double and triple character assignments, ranging from students to education terrorists to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (impersonated by Pamela S. Hankerson). Director Matt Stabile sends them scurrying throughout the audience, often addressing us directly, frequently with a rap spiel. Goodwin is smart enough not to try and answer the question his title poses, but it would be hard to listen to the barrage of facts, opinions and non sequiturs and not consider the central issue in your own mind.
What’s Best for the Children was originally commissioned by a Colorado stage company, but by coincidence it feels tailor-made for Florida consumption. Among the many subjects it addresses is the teaching of the Civil War and slavery’s role in its root causes. As Sunshine State parents, students and well-read observers know, that is exactly what many are trying to eliminate from the curriculum, claiming that its inclusion would make impressionable youngsters feel “uncomfortable.”
As Whit, Simmons is a stalwart anchor of the production, the eye of the political hurricane, caught in the middle of Kafka-esque chaos. Other standouts in the cast include Seth Trucks as an inept PBS videographer and Sarah Romeo as Gitmo, an energetic abductor, and a techno-geek named Acorn.
Aubrey Kestell dresses her unit set with colorful drawings and charts representing the output of elementary school students and Timothy Bowman’s costumes are a blend of the realistic and the fanciful, as is the play itself. Artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art technology are among the topics Goodwin tosses in, represented here by a hovering onstage drone with a mind of its own.
Ultimately, the play leads to a school board vote on several initiatives, with Whit in the hot seat to break a couple of ties. Like the work of Congress, which has been compared to sausage-making, this satirical look at how educational agendas are shaped is anything but an admirable process. And if the result turns out to be what is best for the children, Goodwin suggests that would be a mere coincidence.
WHAT’S BEST FOR THE CHILDREN, FAU Theatre Lab, Parliament Hall, FAU Campus, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton. Through Sun., April 28. $35-$45. 561-297-6124.