Review: LINES IN THE DUST at Matrix Theatre

How do you steal a free education? That is the question posed by Lines in the Dust, a riveting social drama with brilliant performances at the Matrix Theatre on Melrose. Directed with searing intensity by Desean K. Terry, this groundbreaking play is now premiering on the West Coast with a new adaptation, with Collaborative Artists Bloc and Support Black Theatre. Award-winning Black playwright and actress Nikkole Salter is a Los Angeles native and Chair of the Theatre Department at Howard University, whose critically lauded work has been performed internationally on three continents and featured in Essence Magazine, American Theatre Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and NPR.

Chronicling the story of school residency fraud in the affluent township of Millburn, New Jersey, Lines in the Dust fearlessly tackles uncomfortable, vital issues of identity, education, class, race, and access to opportunity. While describing it, I feel it’s almost inevitable that I am making this play sound like a policy discourse or social treatise, but this enthralling drama is also incredibly human, passionate, and emotionally shattering. Lines in the Dust is a significant tour de force.

This play was first commissioned to observe an anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Supreme Court ruling on segregation in schools. Playwright Nikkole Salter explores public school zoning, and its attendant handmaidens of class and economic isolation. What happens to you when your future depends on the quality of your education, and the quality of your education depends on the housing you can afford? Is public education an instrument of advancement, an opportunity for success— or is ultimately it a tool of class and racial conformity and exclusion? “It doesn’t matter how talented you are,” the character of Denitra says, “if nobody lets you in.”

Lines in the Dust ultimately asks of us: is this system what our children deserve?

When a young Black teen is shot at the local high school in Millburn, an investigation reveals that he was not zoned for the school. The school board hires a private investigator to research his death and to discover what other students might be attending the school by claiming false addresses. The private investigator begins to clash with the school principal as he snoops around, and the principal wants to protect her students’ well-being and privacy. Things become personal when he learns of residency fraud committed by a close friend, and now the principal’s reputation and career are on the line — as well as the future of her friend’s daughter.

There are just three actors in this production, all accomplished theatre, film, and television veterans: Emmy-nominated Kelly Jenrette (The Handmaid’s Tale, All American: Homecoming; This Is Us, Manhunt: Deadly Games, Grandfathered, Mixed•ish), Ovation and NAACP Award winner Erica Tazel (Justified, Roots, Queen Sugar, Firefly, Sex and The City, Law & Order, and The Good Fight), and Tony Pasqualini (also a theatre director and playwright, known on screen for Grace and Frankie, Mad Men, Modern Family, West Wing, The Office and Frasier). What electrifying, monumentally great performances they deliver.  There are layers and layers to these characters, profound tension, awkward humor in small, human moments, and searingly intense drama. Kelly Jenrette brings precision, intelligence, depth, exquisite truthfulness, and nimble comedy. You are not going to see better acting anywhere. Tony Pasqualini delivers his character of the affable, overly familiar, folksy, self-promoting, deeply irritating, casually antisemitic and racist private investigator with fully-fleshed humanity and unexpected grace. It's an understated and brilliant performance, and the scene where Tony Pasqualini gets cookie crumbs all over Kelly Jenrette's pristine office is an absolute treasure.

Kelly Jenrette and Erica Tazel switch roles as the principal Beverly and her friend Denitra, and on the night I saw Lines in the Dust, Erica Tazel was playing Denitra. Tazel’s performance is heart-wrenching. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen actor quite break down like this. There is so much vulnerability, rage, desperation, power, and hope in her performance, resigned to what life has handed her, but never defeated. Erica Tazel is an actress of rare and staggering talent.

Every moment on stage feels vibrantly alive and authentic. This is to the credit of the extraordinary writing, these three fearless actors, and unsurpassable direction by director, actor, writer and educator Desean K. Terry, founder of The Last Acting Studio, Co-Artistic Director of Collaborative Artists Bloc, and known for his work on The Morning Show, Southland, Shameless, ER, Monk, House, Grey's Anatomy, and NCIS Los Angeles.

Staging is cool, modern, and minimal, relying on mixture of stylish furniture and modish screens. Personally, I’m not sure if this is the creative choice I would have made for this production, but it does have a certain stylishness. The costuming by award-winner Wendell Carmichael is excellent, with consistent character realism and, in the case of the principal’s wardrobe, gloriously covetable professional fashion reminiscent of peak Olivia Pope / Kerry Washington in the series Scandal.

Cover photo by Matthew Law, all other photos attributed in captions

Lines in the Dust runs through December 10th at The Matrix Theatre. The Matrix Theatre is located 7657 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046. For more information call (310) 619-6322 or click on the button below to get tickets:

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