Rasheeda Speaking
Tickets from $77 Buy Tickets
Cititour.com Review
“Everyone’s a little bit racist” goes one of the funniest songs in the long-running musical “Avenue Q,” but its creators (Jeff Marx and EGOT winner Robert Lopez) aren’t the only ones spreading that same sentiment Off-Broadway. Chicago-based playwright Joel Drake Johnson’s chilling comedy-drama “Rasheeda Speaking,” now receiving a thoroughly enthralling production by The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center, reminds us how far we actually haven’t come since the days of Rodney King and “Can’t we all just get along?”
That question (in slightly different form) literally gets asked in the office of Dr. Williams (a properly unctuous Darren Goldstein), a successful, self-entitled surgeon who pits his long-time white assistant Ileen (Oscar winner Dianne Wiest) against somewhat newer employee, Jacqueline (Tony winner Tonya Pinkins), an African-American woman he’s decided he wants to replace because “she no longer fits in.” Knowing he can’t fire her without support from H.R, he recruits the mild-mannered Ileen, who appears to actually like Jacqueline, to take note of all her behavior, rupturing the pair’s fragile relationship.
Jacqueline is sometimes jovial, sometimes neurotic, and – we come to realize – sometimes very calculating, especially once she realizes what might be going on. She’s not always an easy character to like; she even makes rather racist comments about her Mexican neighbors. Guided by first-time director Cynthia Nixon (yes, THAT Cynthia Nixon), Pinkins delivers the finest performance of her straight-play career, capturing with precision every aspect of this complicated woman.
Her scenes with Rose (the excellent Patricia Conolly), an elderly patient who rather too conveniently makes some outright “racist” statements, are among the most brilliantly executed in this 95-minute play, as Jacqueline changes personas during each encounter.
Of course, it would be a thrill to have the under-seen Wiest back on stage under almost any circumstances. Still, it’s particularly exciting to watch this consummate actress give another superbly calibrated performance as Ileen slowly, almost dangerously unravels under these unforeseen circumstances.
Despite a few flaws in over-writing, “Rasheeda Speaking” is so provocative, thought-provoking, timely, and, above all, brilliantly acted and directed that it deserves a much-longer life than the New Group can currently offer it. Hopefully, some smart producer will speak up and find another home ASAP for this truly worthy work.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.thenewgroup.org/rasheeda-speaking.html
Cast
Patricia Conolly, Darren Goldstein, Tonya Pinkins, Dianne Wiest
Open/Close Dates
Opening 1/27/2015
Closing 3/22/2015
Box Office
212-279-4200
Theatre Info
Pershing Square Signature Center
480 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
Comments
Sign up for our newsletter !