Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In CONFEDERATES, Dominique Morisseau broadens her playwriting by dissecting institutional racism through melodrama and satire

• By drediman
• April 3, 2022
• No Comments

This weekend at the Pershing Square Signature Center, I caught Signature Theatre Company’s production of Confederates by Dominique Morisseau. Morisseau, one of the preeminent Black playwrights of her generation, is perhaps best known for penning the Detroit Project, a trilogy of Detroit-set plays that explore the Black experience, particularly from a socio-economic standpoint (Skeleton Crew, one of the entries in the trilogy, was recently seen on Broadway). The playwright sets her new work both in the present day at a prestigious American university and during the Civil War at a plantation in the South, thereby unpacking the notion of institutional racism by drawing parallels between academia and slavery.

The play marks a stylistic departure for Morisseau, who has established her career by writing hard-hitting naturalistic dramas that expend as much effort creating in meticulously realized characters as they do in excavating pressing social issues. In startling contrast, Confederates dissects Black oppression via stylized melodrama and satire. Although Morisseau is far from breaking new ground (the stylistic approach has been similarly used in plays such as An Octoroon, Fairview, Tambo & Bones, Bootycandy, and Slave Play), her writing here is refreshingly nimble and her plotting concise, allowing her punchy scenes to ping-pong exuberantly between the play’s two settings. As a result, Confederates is less concerned about fully developing characters (favoring lively caricatures instead) as she is about discourse. I only wish there was was a more compelling correlation between the play’s two worlds to warrant the parallel storytelling.

The Off-Broadway production (the play’s New York premiere) has been directed by Stori Ayers, who provides the piece with a clean and elegant staging. In particular, she handles the play’s many transitions with great panache, which includes some fun and clever onstage costume changes. The cast is very good across the board, and they do well to convey the broadness intended by the playwright. That being said, in the central role of Sandra, the usually dependable Michelle Wilson never fully feels convincing as a tenured professor, although her counterpart Kristolyn Lloyd brings a simmering rage to her performance as the slave Sara that’s captivating.

RECOMMENDED

CONFEDERATES
Off-Broadway, Play
Signature Theatre Company at Pershing Square Signature Center
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through April 24