BWW Reviews: Lee's STRAIGHT WHITE MEN Debates The Price of Being an Ally

There are several theater spaces at The Public, so if you're waiting in the lobby and you don't know the name of Young Jean Lee's new play, you might find it an inappropriate exercise in privilege when the loudspeaker announces, "The Martinson is now open for seating for Straight White Men."

Or, if you're familiar with the playwright/director's tendencies, you might think it was planned all along.

The Obie-honoree has made a name for herself for dramatic choices like putting a scene from Sesame Street in play about King Lear and having silent nude performers interact with audience members, so it's perhaps the height of experimentation for this downtown artist that her newest piece, despite the loud (and catchy) dubstep pre-show music, is a traditional naturalistic drama resembling a modern homage to the most highly regarded works of playwrights like Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill.

But then, that's a completely appropriate vehicle with which to observe the dynamics of the title characters. Miller and O'Neill (along with Tennessee Williams, who wrote about "straight" white men) defined 20th Century American stage drama, but the modern eye is more likely to recognize that definition's lack of diversity.

Beige carpeting, a linoleum floor and an ancient exercise bike are some of the living room features specified by the playwright and set designer David Evans Morris complies. Also specified is that "a trans or gender non-conforming stagehand, preferably a person of color," makes a pre-show announcement that, "the actors will stay in character and pretend not to see you, unless your cell phone rings or you start taking photos or video, in which case they will come into the audience and attack you."

The 90-minute piece begins on Christmas Eve and the widowed Ed (Austin Pendleton) is having all his sons over for Chinese food, beer and emotion avoidance.

Though mom is gone, we're continually reminded of her efforts to raise her straight white boys "not to be assholes," such her creation of a homemade board game called Privilege. ("Excuses Card: 'What I said wasn't sexist/racist/homophobic because I was joking. Pay fifty dollars to The Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center.'")

The eldest, Matt (James Stanley), helped get his high school drama teacher fired for only casting white kids in Oklahoma!, and has spent his life as a social activist. But underemployed and back to living with dad until he can pay off his student loans, he's afraid that his choice to dedicate his life to helping others has left him unable to support himself and without having accomplished anything meaningful. He describes his year in Ghana as, "teaching a bunch of people something I didn't know how to do that they didn't want to learn."

Youngest son Drew (Pete Simpson) is a college professor and a prize winning writer whose last book was described by the New York Times as a "radical attack on the crassness of American materialism," but now he's looking to write something more commercial.

When Matt breaks down crying, it's middle child Jake (Gary Wilmes), a successful banker, who tries to make him understand that, as a straight white man he can be no more than an ally to those who will be able to make a good living fighting injustice.

Jake admires Matt for his attempts to change the world, but also argues that, "Women and minorities may get to pretend they're doing enough to make the world a better place just by getting ahead, but a white guy's pretty hard-pressed to explain why the world needs him to succeed."

As for himself, Jake admits to playing the game of pretending to be a pig like his straight white male colleagues in order to get ahead.

"As much as I'd like to bring someone other than a white guy to a client meeting, the clients don't want it, so I'd never do it. Together with my ex-wife, I'm raising our kids to be as white as possible, except for when their blackness makes them more appealing tokens."

The cleverness of Lee's work is the multiple ways it can be taken. One could say she sympathizes with straight white men like Matt who devote their lives to eliminating their own privilege, only to find themselves feeling disadvantaged. Or she's telling them to stop being such crybabies. Or she's simply satirizing a dramatic form.

In any case, Straight White Men fuels discussion.

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