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The same could be said about theater.
Its a construct and its real, at once make-believe and flesh-and-blood.
Questions of spectatorship quickly meld with questions of privilege and power: Whos working and whos watching?
I navigate through its forbidding maze nightly: The paths shift with each journey.
One attempt doesnt necessarily illuminate the next.
And in the case ofFairview,the maze is thornier than ever.
I need you to listen …
I cant hear myself think.
I cant hear anything but you staring at me …
I move forward in uncertainty.
A slice of life …
Nothing big and flashy, just [a] real story about real people.
Theyre playing for a laugh track.
It thinks it has made me who I am.
Its … its just so confusing.
In the wake of Beverlys upset, the Frasiers disappear.
And as they move props around, the Dave Matthews Band is playing.
The message is clear: The white people are coming.
), we realize that they too are watching the Frasiers.
Like, black women are … fierce.
I think there could be something really … empowering in being a black woman.
Like, look at the way they talk to each other.
Theres just so muchattitude …I just love that.
These days, the prospects feel bleak.
The lights were on.
We looked at each other, all of us.
The young woman was passionate, angry.
This is all fake, she fumed, Theyd never make space in real life none of this isreal.
she cried, and a scatter of nervous laughter filled the theater.
Is this part of the play?
I find this divisive!
I dont like this …
I think its condescending to white peopleandto black people!
I honestly dont know how Boateng regained the room.
But somehow, eventually and with superlative grace, she did.
She finished her speech.
But for a moment, there was danger in that tiny theater.
Your fair view of these performers.That view is my job, and its also on trial in Drurys play.
Her mask is gone.
Her shoulders slump a little as Boateng speaks to us, and her eyes look blank, drained.
And shes watching us now.
Ive been trying to talk to You.
Have you heard me?
(My night, this chosen audience member nodded raptly,Yes.)
Do I have to keep talking to the white people?
Do I really have to tell them that?
The question and the play it lives inside hurts.
LikeFairviewas a whole, its a painful interrogation without an easy answer.
But there is a difficult, gentle quiet in I dont know.
Fairviewis at Soho Rep through July 22.
