Review: RACE is confronted by DIRT DOGS THEATRE CO

RACE is the sort of show that DIRT DOGS THEATRE COMPANY does the best, hands down. There is no better group in Houston to take on Mamet, and director Malinda L. Beckham is probably one of the city’s most skilled directors when it comes to him. I have teased her mercilessly, but she truly has an eye for handling men, rough language, and a script that demands you deliver it with a rapid-fire grace. This production of RACE is gritty, real, raw, and extremely well done and delivered. It is some of the best acting in Houston, running on the many stages that have trotted out productions for this time of year. It’s not Halloween or election-themed, but it might as well be. It takes on the clash of white men, black men, and black women and fearlessly looks at all sides when confronted with a crime. Who will do the right thing? It’s a question that seems to hang over the country right now, so RACE could not come at a better time. 

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Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet wrote this piece back in December 2009, and the author claimed it was about “race and the lies we tell each other on the subject." When a multicultural law firm is offered the chance to take on a case involving a wealthy white businessman assaulting a black woman, the staff of the firm debate what to do and how to handle a trial. They argue optics and how they could defend someone who seems to be straddling the fence on whether he is guilty. The original Broadway cast included James Spader, David Alan Grier, and Kerry Washington as the members of the firm. Richard Thomas played the rich caucasian man facing judgment. 

Here in Houston Andraes Hunt, Ashlyn Evans, and Jay Sullivan play the racially balanced firm considering the case, and Aaron Alford is the wealthy white man who is being accused of sexual misconduct. Jay Sullivan is a master at delivering the legalese verbal patter that he is required to do by the script, and he struts around with all the swagger you would expect from a legal eagle of this caliber. Andraes Hunt matches him and adds the urban flair you need from his side of the bench. Both are impressive actors at the top of their game. Aaron Alford is just sleazy enough to be maybe guilty but also earnest enough to be perhaps innocent, so he is perfect as the accused. But the show probably belongs to Ashlyn Evans, who steals the entire play as the sole black female in the room. She has a conviction, an earnest wish for justice, and a blinding preconceived notion of how this will work. I believed every look and every word this actress said, and she offers a master class on how to do this difficult script. It is a truly dynamite quartet working through this play and exploding every single issue. 

What director Malida L. Beckham gets right is the rhythm and the pace. She pushes these actors never to take a breath or skip a beat, and the result is the audience holds their breath for an hour and a half. The tension is palpable. She never flinches from letting her male cast members show the worst sides of their sex, but then with RACE, she also gets the chance to inform her actress with the same wisdom. Mark A. Lewis and her devise an elegantly simple set that allows for a sense of two desks balancing justice. The blocking is ingenious, given that the action takes place with folks on either side of the auditorium. John Baker’s lighting design is also on point, as is Trevor B. Cone’s underscoring with sound design. 

RACE is performed straight-through for ninety minutes without a break. I had no sense that even a few minutes had passed by the time it concluded. It is so skillfully written, intensely acted and confidently directed that I could have sat for another hour enthralled. Unapologetically, I am a fan of David Mamet, and I love the idea of exploring race with these rather questionable characters. The play is not about revelations about race relations in the United States but rather about the inevitability of our own prejudices coming out almost instinctively from the jump. And how we try to mask that with virtue signaling. It’s not pretty, and it is not uplifting, but it is very real. And DIRT DOGS is not afraid to roll in the mud, and Houston theater is all the better for it.  

RACE runs at the MATCH through November 2nd. All tickets are $30 with a pay-what-you-can performance on Sunday the 27th. Seating is on two sides of the auditorium, and you can head to either one, but make sure you are in the middle of the section if you can. I am so tempted to go again so I can see the play from the other angle! 

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