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Denim
Reviewed by Jessica Salans
MaiM Theater Company at Son of Semele Ensemble
Through January 23
Julie Taiwo Oni’s new play Denim, takes us back to 1996, two years after the end of apartheid in South Africa, placing us in Bakersfield, California, in a room with a diverse duo. Tom Anderson (Eric Schulman) is a relatively famous white television actor from Los Angeles who grew up in the farmlands of Bakersfield. Sammie (Taylor Hawthorne) is a precocious, 15-year-old black girl from South Africa. Sammie has won the opportunity to appear alongside the television star in a photo shoot for Levi’s jeans, representing the successful partnership Levi’s now has in and with the African country.
The play’s purpose revolves around the desire for the audience to truly “see” Sammi and Tom for who they are as human beings, and to understand who they are based upon the given circumstances they have endured in their lives.
The play’s opening dialogue reveals Sammi to have a sassy, unapologetic energy toward towards the self-effacing Tom. At first, her sophisticated vocabulary and confidence make it hard to believe that she’s really 15. But as the play progresses and we witness Sammie’s flippant assent into hysterics — whether it be rolling on the floor with laughter, screaming and physically lashing out at Tom or crying into the side of a wall — we can attribute these acts of psychosis to the intense, rocketing emotions of adolescence – along with being in a foreign country for the first time and working alongside a famous TV hunk, and the pressure and glamour of a photo shoot. And. And. . .
First time-director, Terrence Colby Clemons shows trust in his actors; it’s clear they feel safe to journey into the outlandish and vulnerable moments of the play. Hawthorne and Schulamn have captivating chemistry and are mostly believable in their roles, save for when the dialogue gets in the way of potentially honest moments. Some of the overarching discussions include the notion of the white-savior complex, what it means to truly understand someone from another culture and what it means to listen and empathize versus dissolve into reactionary defensiveness. However the play’s frenetic arguments around these themes never quite crack the surface to find genuine resolve. Rather, the actions and arguments seemed to loop repetitively.
However, if Oni’s goal is emphasize such redundancy, the circle of insanity is reflected in the current injustices toward the black and brown communities in the United States: Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner. “Are we here again?” As actions of injustice are repeated, we look for some resolution in hashtag movements and online petitions. In Denim, we find ourselves witnessing a repetition of information, emotions and reactions. And to say Denim actually earns it’s final resolution between Tom and Sammie would be to say black and whites have equal privilege in 2015 because Obama is president, which seems somewhat reductive.
Toward the end of the show, Tom grows thoughtful and says to Sammie, “Tell me a story about your experience.” This is at the heart of why MaiM Theater Company, and all the other Los Angeles theater companies need to continue their work. It is through the telling and listening of individual narratives we are able to find empathy and understanding as a community. Perhaps, through hearing, really listening to each other’s stories, we can all reach a deeper level of humanity, and finally be “seen.”
MaiM Theater Company, Son of Semele Ensemble’s Company Creation Festival, 3301 Beverly Blvd., Westlake; from Jan. 21: Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m.; through Jan. 23. (Festival runs through February 1.) https://www.sonofsemele.org/2013/shows/ccf2015.html – show2
