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December 12, 2003
TT: Black, white--and gray
I reviewed John Kani's Nothing but the Truth and the Builders Association's Alladeen in today's Wall Street Journal. About the first I had mixed feelings:For playgoers who prefer politics to art, apartheid was a godsend. It inspired countless scripts that were black and white in every sense--you never had to ask who the bad guys were--and whose authors always threw in a last-act sermon to clear up any lingering doubts. Now that the good guys have won, though, it stands to reason that South Africa's playwrights should finally have started working in shades of gray, and Lincoln Center Theater has proved the point by importing the Johannesburg production of John Kani's "Nothing but the Truth," an uneven but interesting new play that runs through Jan. 18 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater....
"Nothing but the Truth" is a kitchen-sink drama (literally--Sarah Roberts made sure to include one in her ultra-naturalistic set) whose characters are all citizens of Clichéland: the blustering father, the half-clinging, half-resentful daughter, the outsider who puts dangerous new ideas in the daughter's head. The ambiguities of life after apartheid that Mr. Kani has faced so squarely deserve a fresher framework.
About Alladeen, on the other hand, I had nothing but praise:
You may not know it, but when you dial an 800 number to order a fruitcake or gripe about your Internet service provider, your call is often answered by an Indian operator who has been given an American-sounding pseudonym, painstakingly (though not always successfully) taught to shed his native accent, and assigned to help you as best he can for the lowest possible per-call price. Half performance art, half documentary, "Alladeen" tells the story of these deracinated residents of Nowhere, U.S.A., who take calls from halfway around the world without ever having seen the distant land they pretend to inhabit.
Such a premise could easily have degenerated into a didacticism as rigid as that of "Nothing but the Truth," and sure enough, Marianne Weems, the director and tutelary spirit of "Alladeen," claims the show is all about "the social imagination in an age of corporate colonialism." Not to worry, though: Ms. Weems and her collaborators have turned this PC-speak high concept into a poetic extravaganza that effortlessly blends words, music, film, video art, and the vivid performances of five versatile onstage actors who waft you into the mysterious world of a Bangalore call center....
No link, so to read the whole thing, head for the nearest newsstand, buy this morning's Journal, and turn to the "Weekend Journal" section, where you'll find me on theater, Joe Morgenstern on film, and lots of other interesting stuff.
Posted December 12, 2003 12:00 PM
