In her one-act play, "Double Negatives," Jennifer Silverman '06 brings a rare and nuanced sensitivity to the ongoing debate of homophobia, linguistic diversity and social responsibility in the black community.
The play, which opened last night at Rites and Reason Theatre, is set in an urban environment and revolves around the daily affairs of a diverse cast of five characters.
Julian is an African American graduate student preparing to write his dissertation. His 16-year-old brother, Ali, has long been his best friend and confidant, and he is always happy to tease Julian about what he assumes to be his elder sibling's burgeoning crush on his study partner Gabrielle.
As Julian's relationship with a male university professor grows increasingly ambiguous, however, the two are forced to reevaluate their conceptions both of each other and of their respective identities.
Last year, both the New York Times and the Washington Post ran feature exposes on a "new phenomenon in black society." Polls were indicating that due to the bleaching of homosexuality in mainstream America, African American men were finding it hard to identify with the recent acceptance of gays in the media, as popularized by the white homosexuals of "Will and Grace" and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."
As a result, these articles generalized, gay black men were now at odds with their identity and having a hard time rallying support from their community. As a result, many black men were experimenting with homosexuality on "the down low," the popularized term for closeted black men who were only gay in secret. The political stakes were high: while America began its witch hunt for purveyors of AIDS, black and gay activists lambasted the press for its insensitive, stereotypical and racist attempt to out gays and polarize the community.
Written last semester as a final project for AF 99: "Black Lavender: A Study of Black Gay and Lesbian Plays and Dramatic Constructions in the American Theatre," "Double Negatives" more than adequately displays Silverman's knack for creating truly compelling dialogue, as well as her savvy for blending art and politics.
In her program notes, she describes the psychology of these men "for whom an act does not (and, for their own personal safety and continued status in their community cannot) constitute an identity" as the intriguing social phenomenon that first inspired her to write the play. When further research revealed a correlation between the media's depiction of "acceptable" homosexuality as a strictly white lifestyle and the restrictions placed on sexual behavior within communities of color, she said she knew she had a story on her hands.
Director Marsha West has furnished the stage minimally, with only hints of a cityscape on either side of the proscenium and a few black cubes on a dimly lit stage. Similarly, props have been left almost entirely out of the production: the professor's pointing stick, two masks and a few books indicating Gabrielle's devotion to study are just about all the audience has as reference. The rest they must glean from the characters' colorful use of language.
More interestingly, the staging orbits around a diaphanous scrim, behind which shadow dancers, perhaps incorporated for dark, sexual ambience, gyrate seductively. The audience is also treated to sporadic flashes of multimedia, as film imagery is projected above the action in fluid counterpoint to the players' words. When Julian soliloquizes about his professor, for instance, dreamy imagery appears overhead including scenes of his object of desire's windswept hair.
Among the play's weightier issues, the disjoint between words and action also shades the characters' internal struggles. Silverman described her initial fascination when she sensed a pattern in documented exchanges between journalists and black men. Despite having entertained sexual relations with other men, these men were often reluctant even to refer to the act itself as "homosexual," preferring instead to defend their masculinity by reasserting their heterosexual experience. The ownership of identity, and the employment of words and language to account for behavior by extension, also feature prominently as themes in Silverman's dialogue.
In an effort to play up this disparity, the playwright imbues her script with evocative poetry, a device employed to offset the principle's seeming inability to define himself with words. In addition, scenes are punctuated with grammar lessons, delivered by the professor, which serve as foils for the characters' confused, ungrammatical attempts at self-representation.
West cast her play well. Maceo June '05 as Julian and Tacuma Vanterpool as Ali deliver subtle performances - June effectively realizes Julian's anguish and fear as he grapples with his own identity. Mustafa Samdani GS invokes the confident homosexuality of Professor Kalil with authority. In her first production at Rites and Reason, Gina Rodrigues might be ill-suited for her role - her character didn't feel fully realized. Still, the role is one of the play's less developed, and as the sole female onstage, her bravery deserves recognition.
The only flaw in the show was the director's decision to leave Samdani's British-inflected accent unaltered. Though unorthodox casting decisions are always to be encouraged, even at the expense of geographical realism, it seems that alterations may have been wise here. Because a British accent is still equated with posh academic snobbery in our society, the socio-economic implications of the character's accent, however unintended, undercut what may have been the thesis of Silverman's piece.
The play implies that being an academic and speaking loftily do not have to be at odds with being black, and that being gay doesn't either. By casting an Anglophone, the subtext of his speech dilutes the reality of the Down Low phenomenon - as either a homosexual or as an academic, one may speak differently, but ultimately, we all come from the same background and we are all the same without the mask. With a British accent, one speaks differently because one is, literally, different and from a different background.
An accent change may not be necessary here, but rather a reexamination of the way accents are interpreted. Ultimately, how alien is homosexuality in the community when the gay man is a foreigner, and what's at stake with our use of language when the language is, ultimately, different?
The show's weekend run culminates in an informal discussion session after Sunday's matinee performance.
