Pipeline
Reviewed by Martín Hernández
Art of Acting Studio
Through Aug. 19
RECOMMENDED
“The source of this fight is older than the bricks in this building,” intones one of playwright Dominique Morisseau’s characters in her knotty but compelling indictment of the “school to prison pipeline” that pits primarily Black male students against a racist and increasingly carceral education system. While the line refers to an actual school edifice, Morisseau’s play alludes more to the structure of the U.S.A., its White hegemonic oppression of Black people, and the anger that such evokes among some Black folks after centuries of such bigotry.
For teenager Omari (Nate Memba), his pent-up fury erupts in a violent classroom altercation at a majority White elite boarding school in which his divorced parents have enrolled him, ironically chosen as a safer space that could improve Omari’s scholastic opportunities. It is his “third strike” at the institution so he could now face felony charges. His mother Nya (an affecting Fadhia Carmelle Marcelin) is a teacher at the “inner city” high school Omari could have gone if she had not acquiesced to the demands of her ex-husband Xavier (a steely Jon Joseph Gentry). Nya is desperate to unlock the secret to Omari’s anger and, failing that, finds solace in red wine, cigarettes, and other diversions Morisseau craftily hints at.
Further aggravating the situation is Omari’s fraught relationship with Xavier, a successful business executive who is distant from Omari but who holds economic sway over decisions over his life’s trajectory. While Xavier’s support check is never late, it is his time for which Omari longs. His resentment with Xavier is irritably but comically articulated when Omari acknowledges his father’s arrival during an intense encounter that also telegraphs Xavier’s own struggle with his inner demons — a harrowing bit by Gentry.
Morisseau’s touchstone is poet Gwendolyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool,” a 1959 contemplation on the precarity of the lives of young Black males, that Nya teaches in her classes and that Omari recites to her in dream sequences. The poem underscores Nya’s increasing horror and guilt over possibly losing her son to prison. In one of a many compelling scenes, Nya relates to Omari’s lovesick girlfriend Jazmine (Ari Sucar), how her son’s life — and by extension other Black lives —can be snatched away in an instant for the most arbitrary of reasons. Morrisseau’s allusion to Richard Wright’s Native Son plays a pivotal role as well.
Supporting Nya is Laurie (Jennifer Sorensen), a dedicated White teacher whose commitment to her students is coupled with some hilariously archaic thinking on punishment, and Dun (Omari Willliams), a school security officer who meets his Herculean task with sympathy for the students and school staff but who rarely gets the same in return. While Laurie and Dun enjoy a lively camaraderie, their class differences are brutally exposed after a tumultuous event.
Director Bryan Keith keeps an even keel on the proceedings, allowing each of his actors to establish a presence with their characters, especially Marcelin and Memba as a believably loving yet conflicted mother and son. Vanessa Fernandez’sprojection design, especially the opening sequence, and Ray Jones’s evocative lighting, establish a suitable tone. Morisseau’s ambiguous ending only highlights Nya’s dilemma in fighting for her son. What else is a mother to do when the system is stacked against them both?
The Howard Clurman Laboratory Theatre, Art of Acting Studio, 1017 N. Orange. Dr., Hollywood; Wed.-Sat., 8 pm; thru Aug. 19. https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/1166054 Running time: Ninety minutes with no intermission.
