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I feel like compassion is very out right now.
Whats in is condemnation and punishment.
Now is not the moment for nuance; people do not want it.
Lee is doing something much harder and much more humane.
But the play exists within several frames, starting with its title.
And once the frames open up, thats what Lee demonstrates.
Matt, what the hell happened last night?
bursts out Drew in the plays second act.
Why did you cry?
Like everything Matt does, the crying jag is unobtrusive.
Jake and Drew, by contrast, more than make up for Matts reticence.
Because thats what Matt is to Jake and Drew: a loser.
First, they work themselves into a lather trying to explain their brothers mysterious modesty.
Matts actually doing that!
Listen to me, he snaps, Every single VP at my company is white.
No one else climbs the ladder, at all.
he snarls in disgust, Youre a loser for no reason?
Like what, though?
Its Matts question, and its the plays too.
Jake and Drew and, eventually and shamefully, Ed too ultimately arent reacting to a single teary episode.
In other words, a woman.
A person of color.
Not a straight white man.
Undervalued domestic labor bonus!
shouts Jake at the top of the play as he grabs a game piece from a doctored Monopoly box.
He and Drew have unearthed Privilege, a homemade reworking of the real estate board game from their childhood.
Play with the iron or the thimble, and you get that coveted bonus.
Pass Go while white and immediately pay $200.
Because a joke, or at most an intellectual stance, is all Privilege was to Jake and Drew.
Its much harder not being mean to people you think youve got a good reason to hate.
Straight White Menis at the Helen Hayes Theater.
