Review: WHITE GUY ON THE BUS at Dezart Performs: There's No Safety in Numbers

By: Mar. 04, 2019
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Review: WHITE GUY ON THE BUS at Dezart Performs: There's No Safety in Numbers

The dramatist.com website describes White Guy on the Bus thusly: Week after week a wealthy white businessman rides the same bus, befriending a single black mom. As they get to know each other, their pasts unfold and tensions rise, igniting a disturbing and crucial exploration of race." While that is true, it doesn't even come close to describing what a powerhouse of a play Bruce Graham has written, and in the case of Dezart Performs, what a powerful and often humorous production in the hands of Director, Michael Shaw and his brilliant cast of actors. So, yes, it's about a white guy on a bus, yes it is about racism, but it is not heavy (okay, a lot of it is heavy, but it's deeply steeped in story). The play deftly grabs your psyche, twists it, turns it and then messes with your perceptions on race - no matter how evolved you think you are - and smacks you full-on in the face, sometimes light-heartedly, and sometimes with a vengeance. Even if you think you're woke, you might want to rethink that. More on that later, but first, let's discuss Thomas Valach's set.

Review: WHITE GUY ON THE BUS at Dezart Performs: There's No Safety in Numbers

At first blush, the set isn't "all that". Clearly, there are four scenes set on the stage but they are pretty non-descript, just four areas where you know the action is going to, at some point, wind up. As it turns out, Valach, once again, knows his stuff. The set is perfect. It allows Ray (David Youse) to move seamlessly from scene to scene while sometimes living in both scenes at one time. It works, we are in each moment with him, and nothing gets in the way of what the characters are saying to each other. The same goes for Frank Cazares's costumes; perfect without fanfare, nothing to distract, only to make it all so much more real. There's not much of a light and sound show, with the exception of each act's opening, and some subtle shifts in lights and sound in each scene which Matthew Garrett and Clark Duggar make the most out of. For instance, each act's opening subtly describes the inner workings of our lead character's thought process, although you likely won't even know it until you spend time thinking about after the play is over. And if you are like me, you will think about it long after it is over, again and again. So big kudos to all of them for great and thoughtful production values.

Review: WHITE GUY ON THE BUS at Dezart Performs: There's No Safety in Numbers

I don't want to tell you too much about this play because it peels back its layers so expertly that, unlike Ray - who rides a bus, ostensibly for no reason, to the prison every Saturday chatting with Shatique (Desirée Clarke), a young black mom in nursing school - you have no idea where you are going until you get there. The moment where it all comes together is so shocking and powerful, it should not be ruined for any theatre-goer. But we can talk about who these characters are, and the actors who portray them.

First up: Ray. He's a numbers guy. He describes his job as making rich people richer. He's got a great sense of humor, and when in the company of others, and for the sake of civility, lovingly tries to tamp down his no-nonsense, thinker of a wife, Roz's conversational baiting. Youse brings all the right stuff to the stage as Ray: his numbers brain, his loving touch with Roz, and his need to be peacemaker in their lives. Youse gives us a fully realized character that we feel we know very well, until the moment we don't.

Roz (Alexana Thomas) is a teacher at an inner-city school. She is passionate about her husband, and about the kids she teaches, taking on some students as personal projects. There is a weekly betting pool as to how many times the students call her a "white bitch" which she finds funny. Ray appropriately describes her as treating "conversation as a contact sport". She is a woman who knows who she is, how she feels, and is happy to inform you of it. Thomas delivers on all of that in spades. In another actress' hands, Roz could be a whiney pill, but Thomas keeps her interesting, telling it like it is in the real world, no soapbox necessary. Review: WHITE GUY ON THE BUS at Dezart Performs: There's No Safety in Numbers

One of the layers that is peeled back is who Christopher (Sean Timothy Brown) and Molly (Bianca Stoker) are to Ray and Roz, so I won't tell you that, but Brown and Stoker do a fine job in these two less-celebrated roles. Christopher has just finished a dissertation on Blacks and their portrayals in advertising, and Molly is a teacher at a tony school for upper-class White kids. In act one, it appears the two characters are just foils for race discussions (between two white couples no less) however act two gives them more substance as they have to rethink everything when their idealistic world has crumbled.

Review: WHITE GUY ON THE BUS at Dezart Performs: There's No Safety in Numbers One of the finest performances of the evening belongs to Clarke as Shatique. All bubbly and matter-of-fact in her discussions with Ray about who she is and who she is trying to become, Clarke keeps Shatique likable even as her character's arc takes her (and us) places we don't want to go. Her outrage becomes our outrage, her circumstances and the decision she is pressed to make is just as horrifying and twisted to us as it is to her. We, too, weigh the cost from our seats and feel everything with her, all of her silent justifications and the disgust she wears on her sleeve are suddenly on ours too. That takes a mighty strong actress, and Clarke is more than up to the task.

Michael Shaw's direction is always first class, and this production is no exception. In fact, with the cross-pollination of scenes, he may have outdone himself. Dezart Performs' production of Graham's play is so good it will keep you thinking long after curtain call.

White Guy on the Bus runs March 1, 2019 - March 10, 2019 at Pearl McManus Theater.

314 S Cahuilla Rd
Palm Springs Woman's Club
Palm Springs, CA 92262

For tickets call: (760) 322-0179

Or purchase online at: dezartperforms.org



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