White

by James Ijames

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Drama

71 pages, Paperback

Published March 15, 2018

Reviews

[Juniperus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard about White by James Ijames from a tumblr post about how diversity is commodified for white audiences… and yep, that’s what this play is about! In a sort of twist on Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Ijames tells the story of a white male artist who gets rejected by a white female curator in search of diversity… so he hires a black actress to play him at the exhibition! It’s an inherently funny concept, but I’m not sure if I liked how it was done. Firstly, I’m not really sure what Ijames was trying to say with the ending, which I found somewhat inscrutable. For sure, it’s better if a literary work doesn’t just come out and say its message, and I liked that each of the four characters were flawed, that no one was 100% right per se. But for such a discursive work, I wish it had been fleshed out a little more; the themes are simplistic. I also don’t really read much drama, so maybe I’m not good at it, but the quality of the writing just did not seem great to me. I’m obviously more used to reading screenplays than stage, which tends to be more subtle, but the parts that were supposed to be funny really fell flat, and I cringed at a lot of desperate attempts at humor (Diana Ross’s biblical apparition, for example.) However, some of the parts that were supposed to be funny had me laughing out loud. All in all, White was a great concept, but the execution, rife with grammatical errors, was unpolished. One of the stage directions actually says “I don’t know. Figure it out,” which kind of sums up this work.

[Melanie Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny. Tip toes the line of what's offensive then walks back to examine the moment. I like that the cast is diverse in a play about diversity and liberal white America's desire to look "woke" by ticking boxes.

[Mirabella Ziegler · Rating 4 out of 5]

very very good read! a little difficult for me to understand at times but loved the camp elements and how it tackled stereotypes in communities. especially loved the scene when Vanessa made Jane say Balkonaé. you tell her bitch!! Diana Ross being Gus’ guardian angel was also a wonderful bit as well, it played into his underlying stereotype and fetishization of black womanhood